R328 R329 Yeah that's exactly how it happened. Prospect Park/The Online Network purchased the rights to all of the ABC characters and their likeness from AMC & OLTL after they were sold to them by ABC, with GH and their characters included as a future deal, for the plan was for ABC to cancel GH as well, and move them to The Online Network (that was a secret part of the AMC/OLTL deal that didn't come out until after they secured AMC/OLTL with Prospect Park). ABC even had a cancellation date planned for GH, which was January 4th, 2013, then they were going to move them months afterwards to TOLN where AMC/OLTL premiered on April 29th, 2013.

The OLTL characters were "on loan" to ABC, so when TOLN finally got their network together, they asked for their characters back, which ABC/GH weren't interested in parting ways with any longer. Nor were they interested in parting ways with GH anymore, for Frank and Ron had turned it around, and with both The Revolution (OLTL's replacement) and GMA Afternoon (GH's intended replacement) failing in year runs, ABC decided to stick with GH (The Chew, AMC's replacement, was their only new show that showed signs of being a success).

Not only did ABC/Frank/Ron not want to let go of the characters, they didn't want to let go of the three main actors either (RoHo, KA, ME) and the actors didn't want to leave GH, so that's why they had to have all of their characters leave town, then return as new characters (ME as Silas Clay, a continuance of the Port Charles arc, KA as Kiki Jerome, and RoHo as Franco, although the first choice for RoHo was to portray a new villainous character named Alexander Cassadine, until Ron changed his mind at the last minute and made him a recast Franco, even though James Franco indicated he was willing to return, he said that he couldn't do it on a full-time basis, and they wanted Franco back full-time)

Part of Prospect Park's lawsuit included claims of "sabotage" on ABC/Frank and Ron's part, for they felt that they were reneging on the original deal, by trying to keep OLTL actors onboard and by keeping GH on ABC. They were also pissed off with Frank and Ron for killing off Cole and Hope, when they wanted them both on TOLN version (even though it was explained by ABC that the characters were merely "presumed dead" and could be brought back to life).

R331 Prospect Park ended up losing the lawsuit in September 2016, so all of the rights to AMC/OLTL reverted back to ABC. That's why Frank has been able to bring on Nora Buchanan and Jackson Montgomery while also making several references to Llanview, Llantano Mountain, Pine Valley, etc. along with dropping hints that Olivia "Liv" Jerome and OLTL's Alex Olanov are one in the same. The intentions were to bring more of a Llanview feel to GH with the Sonny/Mike story serving as a bridge back to Port Charles, then AMC characters too, with Todd Manning being one of the first to show up (John McBain coming back was left up to Michael Easton to decide, which probably would've happened) with more to follow. ABC's no rapist policy nixed a Todd return, so Frank shelved the entire OLTL resurgence.