American Broadcasting Company which were related to advertising and were indexed compared to the number of listeners/viewers, failed to compensate for its heavy investments in purchasing and building stations. In 1951, a rumor even mentioned that the network would be sold to CBS. In 1951, Noble held a 58% ownership stake in ABC, giving him $5 million with which to prevent ABC from going bankrupt; as banks refused further credit, that amount was obtained through a loan from the Prudential Insurance Company of America. Leonard Goldenson, the president of UPT (which sought to diversify itself at the time), approached Noble in 1951 on
Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. absorb that much equity; either one of them must back down or prices would suffer severely. DeBartolo agreed to withdraw. In April, 1994, most of the properties owned by The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation were transferred to DeBartolo Realty Corporation, a public REIT, in its initial public offering. The new company was chaired by Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.; DeBartolo Sr. was unwilling to deal personally with the constraints of running a public company. In 1996, DeBartolo Realty Corporation was acquired by Simon Property Group, the public REIT formed by DeBartolo's longtime competitors, Melvin and Herbert Simon. DeBartolo's contributions to the