Having a popular developer tool that is already integrated with a lot of apps in both iOS and Android is valuable strategic asset for Google. Analytics and ads go hand in hand and as tracking cross-app behavior is hard, and having a library that is installed in many apps makes it easier.
I'm pretty sure that this was the strategic thinking when started to invest to app developer tools (Crashlytics, Fabric, Digits, MoPub). It's interesting to speculate why they are selling Fabric, is their business model focus moving away from mobile ads?
It's definitly interesting to see them move. Google already has Google Analytics/Firebase Analytics which pretty much every app developer integrates given their generous free tier so the extra data seems to be diminishing returns for Google. Seems to be more of a loss for Twitter than Google's gain given now they won't have a GA like equivalent.
I don't think Fabric was ever used for Twitter ad targeting just by reading their TOS unlike the Google/FB world and their analytics products but I could be wrong. Seems like a case where Twitter didn't realize the full potential of Crashlytics and Answers.
I'm pretty sure that this was the strategic thinking when started to invest to app developer tools (Crashlytics, Fabric, Digits, MoPub). It's interesting to speculate why they are selling Fabric, is their business model focus moving away from mobile ads?