Word: virginally
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...fact is, although some of the best-known Branson businesses are in the black-the main airline, trains, Virgin Direct financial services and the Megastores all turn profits, says Whitehorn-plenty more just plain haven't worked. Virgin Drinks, the cola company, lost millions in recent years. Virgin Express, a Brussels-based discount airline that trades on the nasdaq for about $1 a share, down from more than $27 in 1998, has been hit by its dependence on connections with Belgium's beleaguered Sabena airline...
...comes out the good causes fund, we'll give it straight back to charity," says Branson. "This is just to deter us from getting our costs back." Branson-who doesn't think the public associates Virgin with his lottery fight-says it's a matter of principle. He actually came within a whisker of getting the business last year and believes he was misled into spending more money to maintain a bid he should have won on the merits. So why did Branson lose the lottery? "It's rather awkward for me to say why," says Branson, coyly. "Ring...
...About a year ago Branson even had to fight off bankers who wanted to close his Our Price high street shops, which are being retooled into mobile phone and CD stores. Bower's book suggests that Branson had to sell his Virgin Atlantic stake to pay his debts and save Our Price. Branson counters: "We could have kept it afloat through the general funds of Virgin...
...this makes some wonder if Branson does too much. In fact, Whitehorn told Time that Virgin is going to stop launching lines in order to expand its current businesses into new markets. But the vital point is that like any brand, the Virgin label is part illusion. (Did Coke ever really teach the world to sing? Is Virgin Cola anything but another kind of bubbly brown-sugar water packed into bright red cans?) Branson says he's the business world's equivalent of Ralph Nader. His Virgin Atlantic really did innovate business-class air travel and as Virgin Blue airline...
...Bowker reckons that if Branson's stakes in his various companies were put on the public markets, they'd be worth roughly $3 billion. That would make Virgin a medium-to-big sized company. What's remarkable is how Branson created all this value. He put up only $26 million of the more than $90 million that created Virgin trains, but he owns half of it. He also has half of Virgin Direct, for which he says the Australian firm AMP provided most of the funding. Taking Virgin Mobile phones to Asia, Branson got Singapore Telecom, like Singapore...