Andy Rubin was a visionary and he bailed.
He left Apple to found Danger which was one of the "genesis" products that led to the smartphone era. (1)
He made the next huge leap with Android and almost failed until Google showed up to help him fully execute his vision under their stewardship.
After Android became a very mature business in its own right what to do with the visionary founder?
The article states that "Page is interested in robots" - can you imagine if Larry Page came to you and said "Hey how about you literally build robots all day. You could be Tony Stark and here's $100m to get you started. We'll change the world!"
It's a hard to turn down offer, Rubin accepted and tried to recapture the magic pursuing somebody else's vision. But it's damn tough to be a founder / visionary under somebody else's thumb, especially when you're set for life financially.
That's a story that never works out, but is played out again and again in technical acquisitions as big organizations attempt to find a place for founders.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_(company)
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...