Simon had offered $20 a share to take over GGP, even though General Growth hasn't seen that price since late 2008. Since the hearing started at 10 a.m. this morning, GGP's stock fell from $15.80 per share to a low of $14.

Brookfield pledged to help bring GGP out of bankruptcy by purchasing GGP stock at $10.50 per share, resulting in a $6.5 billion equity investment and $2 billion capital backstop offer, which includes assistance from Pershing Square Capital Management and Fairholme Funds. The Brookfield deal comes with several million dollars in warrant fees to GGP, though Brookfield has agreed to postpone some of the costs.

Simon issued a statement after the hearing was over that it is now out of the entire GGP bankruptcy process. "We are disappointed that the GGP board hastily decided in less than 24 hours to accept substantially less value, rather than take more time to fully assess the benefits of SPG's offer and enter into negotiations to make this value available to GGP shareholders," said David Simon, chairman and CEO. "For many months, SPG has tried to work collaboratively and productively with GGP to bring our proposals to fruition. SPG has been highly flexible, making numerous changes to its proposals in response to requests from GGP, its stakeholders and its advisors. GGP's decision to proceed with a transaction that transfers hundreds of millions of dollars in value to the Brookfield consortium has caused us to conclude that we cannot reach a mutually beneficial transaction with GGP. As a result, it is in SPG's best interests to withdraw our proposals and decline to participate in the bidding process in the GGP bankruptcy," Simon said.