Fossil Group (FOSL) announced its plan to sell to Google (GOOG, GOOGL) for $40M intellectual property related to a smartwatch technology currently under development by Fossil Group. As part of the transaction, a portion of Fossil Group's research and development team currently supporting the transferring IP will join Google.

Fossil Group retains more than 200 R&D team members to focus on innovation and product development. "Fossil Group has experienced significant success in its wearables business by focusing on product design and development informed by our strong understanding of consumers' needs and style preferences," said Greg McKelvey, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, Fossil Group.

"We've built an advanced a technology that has the potential to improve upon our existing platform of smartwatches. Together with Google, our innovation partner, we'll continue to unlock growth in wearables". The transaction is expected to close this month.