TOPLINE As an eleventh-hour scramble to seek extra finance failed, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Tuesday, the satellite business disclosed, marking the end of a precipitous fall that followed a botched high-profile launch attempt out of Britain in January.
KEY FACTS
According to the materials presented, Virgin Orbit has submitted an application for protection under Chapter 11 with the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Virgin Orbit announced that it had been unable to acquire sufficient money to stay in business, and the decision comes less than a week after the company terminated operations and laid off the majority of its personnel.
The company has stated that it is dedicated to a “swift” sale and will receive an infusion of $31.6 million from Branson’s Virgin Investments in order to keep it afloat throughout the process of selling itself.
On of the 30th of September, the bankruptcy petition listed assets in the amount of approximately $243 million and debts in the amount of approximately $153 million.
The chief executive officer of the company, Dan Hart (no connection), stated that “we ultimately must do what is best for the business,” despite the attempts made to seek additional money and improve the company’s financial status.
In his speech, Hart praised Orbit’s employees and celebrated the company’s 33 successful satellite launches. He also expressed his confidence that Orbit’s “cutting-edge launch technology” will be attractive to customers.
NEWS PEG
The first attempt made by Virgin Orbit to place satellites into orbit from the United Kingdom was unsuccessful in January. The unsuccessful venture was a major setback for the fledgling British space programme and signalled the beginning of the end for Virgin Orbit, which had a market capitalization of $3.2 billion when it went public less than two years earlier. In the weeks and months that followed the aborted launch, Virgin Orbit’s stock experienced a precipitous decline. Meanwhile, the firm was in the midst of emergency negotiations to secure finance when it suspended, and then ultimately ceased, operations, and laid off the majority of its workforce.
FORBES VALUATION
$3 billion. According to our real time wealth tracker, this is how much Forbes estimates Richard Branson’s current net worth to be. The majority of Branson’s wealth comes from the portfolio of “Virgin” branded companies that he established, which includes Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Media, and Virgin Galactic, amongst others. He is one of the wealthiest persons in Britain and has made a billion dollars for himself on his own. Branson is one of a group of billionaires rushing into space to capture a piece of the rising market, along with Elon Musk, who is the chief executive officer of Tesla and Twitter, and Jeff Bezos, who is the founder of Amazon.