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☆ Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson's rocket company, to lay off 85% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Virgin Orbit — the rocket company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson — is laying off the vast majority of its workforce as company leadership struggles to secure additional funding. Virgin Orbit spokespeople declined to comment beyond the filing. Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 after spinning off from its sister company, Virgin Galactic, which is focused on using supersonic planes to vault high-paying tourists on joy rides to the edge of space. Virgin Orbit, on the other hand, has been developing an air-launched rocket, dubbed LauncherOne, for hauling small satellites to orbit. Virgin Orbit announced it was going public — via a reverse merger agreement called a SPAC — in the fall of 2021.

☆ Virgin Orbit extends unpaid pause as Brown deal collapses, 'dynamic' talks continue
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Virgin Orbit launches its LauncherOne rocket from the spaceport in Cornwall, marking the first ever orbital launch from the UK. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)Virgin Orbit is again extending its unpaid pause in operations to continue pursuing a lifeline investment, CEO Dan Hart told employees in a company-wide email. But discussions between Virgin Orbit and the Texas-based investor stalled and broke down late last week, a person familiar told CNBC. Virgin Orbit was spun out of Branson's Virgin Galactic in 2017 and counts the billionaire as its largest stakeholder, with 75% ownership. Mubadala, the Emirati sovereign wealth fund, holds the second-largest stake in Virgin Orbit, at 18%.

☆ Investing in Space: The latecomer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter offers a view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox. A small group of Virgin Orbit employees are rolling back into the company's Long Beach, California, headquarters today. Virgin Orbit this week announced a partial resumption of operations, potentially bolstered by a surprising new backer: private investor Matthew Brown. A person close to the Virgin Orbit deal described Brown as a "latecomer" and said company leadership initially considered his bid "super fringe." From another investor's perspective, Virgin Orbit was "the most likely to succeed after Rocket Lab " in the small satellite launch market.

☆ Virgin Orbit starts to plan for insolvency amid rescue talks, Sky News reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 19 (Reuters) - Aircraft engineering company Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc (VORB.O) has begun drawing up detailed contingency plans for its insolvency days after halting its operations and furloughing its workforce, Sky News reported on Sunday. Richard Branson's Virgin Group is working with restructuring firms Alvarez & Marsal and Ducera about fallback plans if they cannot secure new funding, the report added. Last week, Reuters reported that Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Dan Hart told staff in a meeting that the furlough was intended to buy the company time to finalize a new investment plan to help pull it out of its financial woes, while the duration of the furlough remained unclear. Virgin Orbit did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Virgin Orbit pauses operations for a week, furloughs nearly entire staff as it seeks funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Virgin Orbit is furloughing nearly all its employees and pausing operations for a week as it looks for a funding lifeline, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Virgin Orbit is also moving up payroll by a week to Friday. Virgin Orbit did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment. Shares of Virgin Orbit fell 11% in after-hours trading from its close at $1.01 a share. When Virgin Orbit reported third quarter results in early November, it disclosed cash on hand of $71.2 million at the end of the quarter.

☆ Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit rocket company ceases operations for a week, seeks additional funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Virgin Orbit told nearly all of its staff to cease operations until at least next week as the rocket company, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, works to secure additional funding. Though no deal for additional funding has been solidified, the source said the company is in “talks” to secure additional money. Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 after spinning off from its sister company, Virgin Galactic, which is focused on using supersonic planes to vault high-paying tourists on joy rides to the edge of space. Virgin Orbit, on the other hand, has been developing an air-launched rocket for hauling small satellites to orbit, dubbed LauncherOne. Virgin Orbit announced it was going public — via a reverse merger agreement called a SPAC — in the fall of 2021.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg's MMA fighting and Bill Gates' pickleball: 20 tech billionaires and executives and the sports they play
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Billionaire Richard Branson is known for being something of a daredevil. Branson has broken multiple Guinness World Records, including being the first man to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in a hot-air balloon. "It's important to have fun in life and not take yourself too seriously," he told Insider in a 2016 interview. Most recently, Branson traveled to space on a Virgin Galactic rocket. Sources: Insider, Guinness World Records, Insider

☆ 20 tech founders and billionaires that like to play sports — from Bill Gates's love for pickleball to Jeff Bezo's days-long horseback rides
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Virgin wins $160 mln in trademark dispute with Alaska Airlines
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Sam Tobin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Virgin units Virgin Aviation TM Ltd and Virgin Enterprises Ltd argued Alaska is liable to pay a roughly $8 million “minimum royalty” payment every year until 2039. Virgin granted a trademark licence to Virgin America to use its brand in connection with the operation of a U.S. domestic airline before Alaska Air Group Inc. completed its $2.6 billion acquisition of Virgin America. Alaska merged its operations with Virgin America in 2018 and stopped using the Virgin brand the following year. Virgin told London’s High Court in October that Alaska, as the legal successor to Virgin America Inc, is obliged to make the annual payment. The judge added that the terms of the agreement “must be approached from the perspective of Virgin and Virgin America ... and not from the perspective of Alaska”.

☆ Snoop founder Gadhia quits UniCredit board after Moneyfarm chairmanship
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MILAN, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Jayne-Anne Gadhia, founder of money managing application Snoop and former Virgin Money chief executive, has stepped down from the board of UniCredit (CRDI.MI) with immediate effect, the Italian bank said on Friday. Gadhia last month took on the chairmanship of digital wealth manager Moneyfarm, replacing co-founder Paolo Galvani to work alongside CEO and co-founder Giovanni Daprà. Gadhia was at the helm of Virgin Money, the digital bank of Britain's Virgin group, for more than a decade until its listing in 2018. UniCredit said Gadhia had decided to step down "due to a new commitment" and would remain as an adviser to the bank. Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The first ever orbital space launch from the UK is due to take off on Monday
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Hannah Ward-Glenton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The modified Boeing 747 plane, named "Cosmic Girl", will take off from Spaceport Cornwall in southwest England. LONDON — The first orbital rocket launch in Western Europe is set to take place in the U.K. on Monday evening. Virgin Orbit had lowered its forecast for launches in 2022 to three, having initially expected to make between four and six earlier in the year. On announcing its third-quarter results for 2022 in November, Virgin Orbit also said it raised $25 million to boost its depleting cash reserve. Shares of Virgin Orbit hit a three-week high Friday, trading at $2.11.

☆ Virgin Orbit stock plummets after failure of its first UK rocket launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Virgin Orbit stock fell in trading on Monday evening, after the company confirmed that its first launch out of the United Kingdom failed to reach orbit. Shares of Virgin Orbit fell as much as 30% in after-hours trading, from its previous close of $1.93 a share. Virgin Orbit's webcast showed its LauncherOne rocket released and fired its engine, with the company saying in a tweet that the rocket "successfully reached Earth orbit." Virgin Orbit is reviewing the launch data to identify the source of the failure, and acknowledged that it deleted the tweet about reaching orbit. Monday's mission was Virgin Orbit's sixth to date, and its second launch failure.

☆ Virgin Orbit counts down to first space launch ever from UK soil
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —Virgin Orbit is about to conduct the first ever space launch from the United Kingdom. It will also mark the first launch of commercial satellites from western Europe, and the first international launch for Virgin Orbit. Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, described the UK mission as a “historic endeavor.”“This launch represents the opening of a new era in the British space industry and new partnerships across industry, government, and allies,” he said in a statement released Friday. The mission, named “Start Me Up” after the Rolling Stones’ 1981 song, is a joint venture between Virgin Orbit, the UK Space Agency, Cornwall’s local government and the UK’s Royal Air Force. The country’s £16.5 billion ($20 billion) space industry directly supported about 47,000 jobs between 2019 and 2020, according to the latest available government figures.

☆ Richard Branson left school at 15—his headmaster said he'd either 'go to prison' or 'become a millionaire’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

When billionaire Richard Branson was 15, he dropped out of school to run a magazine. The headmaster at Branson's school was taken aback by his persuasiveness, and offered a prediction and a warning. "[I knew] I could pay for the printing of the paper and manufacturing, and so I quit school … with the headmaster saying, 'You're either going to prison or you're going to become a millionaire,'" Branson, 72, said on the podcast. Branson hasn't spent any time behind bars, but he has an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, as of Thursday morning. In a 2019 blog post, Branson wrote that dyslexia is often associated with high levels of creativity and problem-solving abilities.

☆ Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit gets green light for first orbital space launch from UK — and will use a repurposed Boeing 747 for the mission
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit gained a license for the first orbital space launch from the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK's space regulator, announced in a statement on Wednesday that Virgin Orbit was permitted to launch from Spaceport Cornwall in southern England. Issuing the final license to Virgin Orbit for the UK's first orbital satellite launch was another "major milestone," the CAA said in the statement. Virgin Orbit didn't respond to Insider's request for comment about the new launch date. Virgin Orbit has named the mission "Start Me Up" after a song by The Rolling Stones.

☆ Virgin Orbit: The UK just took a step closer to space flight
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —The United Kingdom is one step closer to conducting its first ever satellite launch from its own shores. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a regulatory body, said on Wednesday that it had granted the final licenses to Virgin Orbit to carry out the launch. The company has already conducted four successful satellite launch missions in this way from California. “Today we are one step closer to opening the UK’s galactic gateway, with Virgin Orbit receiving an historic first license to allow the UK’s first ever spaceflight launch,” UK transport secretary Mark Harper said in a statement on Wednesday. The CAA said it granted Virgin Orbit the final remaining licenses after it met all necessary safety, security and environmental tests.

Page purchased Hans Lollik and its smaller neighboring island, Little Hans Lollik, in 2014 for $23 million. The Hans Lollik Islands in the US Virgin Islands were bought by Larry Page in 2014 cdwheatley/Getty ImagesPage purchased the islands from Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company using a limited-liability company called Virgin Island Properties LLC. Page's intentions for the Hans Lollik islands are unclear, but the larger island of the two may have personal significance for the Google cofounder. In the deposition, Osborne hinted that Larry proposed to his wife, the research scientist Lucinda Southworth, on Hans Lollik. Page expands to the South PacificIn 2020, Page added another island to his portfolio: the heart-shaped Tavarua island in Fiji's Mamanuca archipelago.

☆ 100 UK companies are scrapping the 40-hour workweek. Here's how the standard work schedule became so popular in the first place.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Marguerite Ward | Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

100 companies in the UK are adopting a four-day workweek without cutting pay for their employees. Here's a timeline of how the US adopted the five-day, 40-hour workweek. Indeed, the pandemic accelerated public discourse over whether the 40-hour workweek still makes sense for some employees. Here's a look back through the history of the 40-hour workweek and how we got to where we are today. How the 40-hour workweek has evolvedDespite the long work it took to make the 40-hour workweek a reality, research shows people do continue to log longer work hours.

☆ Virgin Orbit raises $25 million from Branson's conglomerate as cash reserve dwindles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Virgin Orbit raised $25 million, the company announced Monday alongside its third-quarter results, as the alternative rocket launcher faces a dwindling cash reserve. The company disclosed that Richard Branson's Virgin Group, an existing shareholder, made the additional $25 million investment on Nov. 4. Virgin Orbit emphasized in its report that it will "continue to be opportunistic in the capital markets," as the company is "focusing on cost and operational efficiency to improve cash flow." The company brought in revenue of $30.9 million and had $71.2 million in cash on hand at the end of the third quarter. Virgin Orbit said the fourth launch is currently "paced by spacecraft readiness."

☆ Investing in Space: Cash crunch
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter offers a view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox. We're now in the final quarter of the year, and for several space companies, it's survival time. They weren't proven businesses and the tide went out," a banker familiar with the sector told me about the environment for space stocks. While not a definitive metric, the cash burn rates of de-SPAC space companies – from AST SpaceMobile to Redwire and more – give a window into the urgency of the situation. Private space companies are feeling the pinch as well.

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