In mid-March, Virgin Orbit went into an “operational pause” and put most of its 750 employees on unpaid leave due to financial problems. Reports have surfaced that the satellite launch company was in talks with potential new investors since then, but it appears it has yet to close a deal that will finance its operations going forward. According CNBC and ReutersVirgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart told employees via email that the company will extend unpaid leave for most of its workforce.
“Our investment discussions have been very active in recent days, are ongoing and not yet at a stage where we can provide a full update,” he wrote. Sources told news organizations that Virgin Orbit’s late-stage talks with Texas-based investor Matthew Brown broke down and were officially canceled late last week.
Brown was to invest $200 million in the company, which would have given the investor a majority stake. He talks to a different potential buyer, CNBC he said, also stopped on Sunday night. Invest in the CNBC space Newsletter recently reported that Sir Richard Branson, who currently has the largest stake in the company at 75 percent, no longer wants to own the business. Branson’s Virgin Group apparently scrambled to find financing for the company in an effort to avoid bankruptcy.
A small team of Virgin Orbit employees already returned to work last week as part of its long-awaited “incremental restart of operations.” While the company’s future remains unclear, it needs to start preparing for the upcoming planned rocket launches. One of the missions that it intends to complete this year is its second attempt at orbital launch from British soil. If you’ll remember, what was supposed to be Virgin Orbit’s first UK orbital launch lifted off from Spaceport Cornwall on January 9th, but was unable to reach orbit due to a dislodged fuel filter.
