(FORTUNE Magazine) – Billion-dollar secrets aren't easily kept, particularly in the world of network television, but media mogul Leonard Goldenson managed to pull it off. Six years ago Goldenson, now 85, delivered the stunning announcement that ABC, of which he was CEO, would be acquired by Capital Cities, for $3.4 billion -- the first sale of a network ever. At least as surprising, though, are disclosures in Goldenson's new memoirs, Beating the Odds, about other potential partners before the Cap Cities nuptials. Perhaps the most startling: Goldenson's first choice to acquire ABC was IBM, which wasn't interested. Goldenson's list of people who did show interest, however, reads like a Who's Who of 1980s financiers: Robert Bass, Martin Davis, and Goldenson tennis partner Laurence Tisch, who went on to become CEO at archrival CBS in 1986. ''Over Cokes after tennis, he always grilled me on the broadcast business,'' says Goldenson. But the ABC chief feared his company would be dismembered if it was acquired by an uninvited bidder: ''I told them all, 'No thanks.' ''