Leonard Goldenson
Goldenson orchestrated the merger of United Paramount Theatres with ABC in 1953 (after Paramount was ordered to spin it off in the wake of "United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.", a 1948 decree of the U.S. Supreme Court). ABC was originally formed in 1943 in the wake of an earlier Supreme Court decree effectively ordering the spinoff of the largely secondary-status "Blue Network" from its then-parent, NBC; its buyer, industrialist Edward J. Noble, tried to build ABC into a competitive Broadcasting company, but by 1951 was rumored to be on the verge of selling the nearly bankrupt operation to CBS, whose management apparently wanted ABC's critically important owned-and-operated television stations.
Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
Capital Cities/ABC merged with The Walt Disney Company on January 5, 1996, and assumed The Walt Disney Company name and headquarters in California on that same day. Michael Eisner also retained his position as Disney's CEO. Disney CFO Stephen Bollenbach, who had crafted the deal, left Disney in February 1996 to become Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hilton Hotels Corporation. A subsidiary operating the combined company's television operations, ABC, Inc., was established on September 19, 1996.Stations are listed alphabetically by state and city of license.