Virgin Orbit extends pause in operations, having failed to get new financing
Virgin Orbit has extended its worker furlough and pause in operations now that a $200 million deal with a Texas investor has fallen through.
Reuters reported last week that Texas-based Matthew Brown had been in talks to invest $200 million in the company. Those talks have collapsed, said two people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified. Brown declined to comment on Monday.
Virgin Orbit, teetering on bankruptcy after a January rocket failure and struggles to raise funds, furloughed nearly all its 750 employees on March 15 while it sought a financial lifeline that would allow it to focus on upgrading its launch business.
This is very bad news for the company, because it indicates that there might not be a financial savior for it.
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Virgin Orbit has extended its worker furlough and pause in operations now that a $200 million deal with a Texas investor has fallen through.
Reuters reported last week that Texas-based Matthew Brown had been in talks to invest $200 million in the company. Those talks have collapsed, said two people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified. Brown declined to comment on Monday.
Virgin Orbit, teetering on bankruptcy after a January rocket failure and struggles to raise funds, furloughed nearly all its 750 employees on March 15 while it sought a financial lifeline that would allow it to focus on upgrading its launch business.
This is very bad news for the company, because it indicates that there might not be a financial savior for it.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
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750 employees?
And it can not make consistent launches?
Sounds like a company that has been used as a tax right off for the Virgin group and any investors.
This new investor more than likely got a look at the books and figured it out.
There is no chance at all this company will ever make money.
I bet the British government even figured it out. Maybe that is why they were dragging their feet.
Not looking good.
In some ways kind of sad. I thought the air launch option to be fascinating.
I also wonder if it goes belly up, will Branson let it all go, meaning both VO and VG.
My impression is that Branson has long since bailed, after doing a pump and dump fraud
pzatchok wrote: “Sounds like a company that has been used as a tax right off for the Virgin group and any investors.”
Virgin Orbit is the company that the British had delayed a launch license for half a year. In that time, the company was unable to launch any other payloads, so it was prevented from revenue operations by a pack of bureaucrats who do not care whether or not they put their wards out of business.
The irony is that we had expected Virgin Galactic to go out of business, as they have yet to perform any revenue flights. Virgin Orbit was expected to survive, as its more traditional business model had been proved by other companies as viable. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the underfunded company of the pair.
Virgin Orbit had shown much promise and a service that differed from the others. It is too bad that governments are unwilling to serve their people and are only willing to serve themselves. What the heck are we paying taxes and fees for, anyway?
And there are other companies doing more with less, both in manpower and money. There are also companies doing the same with less.
The 6 month delay meant nothing to the over all health of the company.
Lets just say that they needed to make monthly launches to break even and weekly launches to pull a profit. Are they at that point yet? No they are years away from pulling a profit. All a launch would have done is bring in more investors who would loose money over the next 5 years,
The real business model was to just draw in more investors launches were just the bait.
pzatchok,
You described every launch company. In fact, you described every startup company. You even described stalwart companies. It is quite a cynical view on free market capitalism.
It is amazing how many people think that companies are made of cash, and that six months without revenue means nothing to the overall health of any company. You should probably run a company sometime and see how easy it is to make payroll every week. Sometimes the choice is between making payroll or getting a 2% discount by paying a vender in a timely manner. Which would you choose? 2% ten, net 30. No one would need that deal if they were flush with cash, and the vendor wouldn’t offer that deal if he didn’t need cash sooner rather than later.