Six weeks later, on November 6, Nexstar announced that it would purchase the stations owned by Grant Broadcasting—including Fox affiliate KLJB (channel 18) and CW affiliate KGCW (channel 26)—for $87.5 million. Nexstar was able to acquire KGCW directly as, under FCC regulations in effect at the time, the Davenport–Moline–Rock Island market had eight independent, full-power station owners—the minimum required to permit a duopoly—through the existing KLJB/KGCW combination (even though that duopoly originated through the latter's 1996 conversion into a KLJB satellite). Due to FCC ownership regulations that prohibited ownership of two or more of the four highest-rated television stations in the same media market, KLJB was spun off to Marshall Broadcasting Group, a newly formed minority-controlled company headed by Pluria Marshall Jr.; Nexstar subsequently assumed the operations of KLJB through a shared services agreement, forming a virtual triopoly with WHBF and KGCW. The sale for WHBF was completed on March 13, 2014. The deal reunited WHBF with two of its former Citadel sister stations, ABC affiliates WIVT in Binghamton, New York and WVNY in Burlington, Vermont.