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Now Virgin Orbit is in talks with two financial institutions for bailouts and has laid off employees, according to a person familiar with the matter. Late Thursday night, following the announcement of the suspension, shares of Virgin Orbit, which was listed less than two years ago at a valuation of more than $3 billion, fell more than 30%.

Shares in Virgin Orbit fell 9.1% on Friday to 65 cents a share from over $10 at their January 2022 peak.

It was a precipitous downfall for a once-popular company that was trying to build a business by launching smaller satellites into space. The challenges Virgin Orbit is facing are also the latest up and down trajectory for Mr. Branson’s company. Throughout his career, he has built a global brand around a portfolio of companies controlled by his private Virgin group.

These businesses have included music, airlines, cruise ships and a bank over the years, all of which have been particularly hard hit during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown and travel restrictions.

At the time, Mr. Branson was quick to support his tourism and travel ventures, vowing to borrow money at some point against the security of his private island. Some, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, have proven resilient.

Among these adversities, Mr. Branson’s space ventures were a bright spot. In 2021, he ushered in the era of commercial space tourism by defeating Jeff Bezos by flying back to near space aboard a space plane operated by his Virgin Galactic Holdings. incl.

The 72-year-old celebrated with a livestream in a gravity-free cabin.

In the same year, he launched Virgin Orbit, which developed a new way to launch satellites inside a booster propelled partially into space under the wings of a Boeing 747. He registered the company using the so-called Special Purpose Acquisition Company, popular at the time, among other things, to ease barriers for companies seeking to go public.

Virgin Orbit gained a lot of industry credibility when Boeing Co. agreed to invest. Mubadala Investment Co., the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, is also a major investor.

While the satellite industry has historically been dominated by large vehicles launching large satellites, Virgin Orbit and a few other competitors around the world have specialized in smaller satellites in lower orbits, targeting civil, military and commercial customers in the lower end of the market. Prior to the launch failure in the UK, Virgin Orbit had four successful launches, launching 33 satellites into space.

However, this market has faced pressure from Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Elon Musk or SpaceX. SpaceX offers relatively inexpensive missions that deploy several small satellites from different operators. Some rocket industry executives have said they think there is only room for a couple of small rocket suppliers.

Virgin Orbit’s share price has been steadily declining for much of the past year. The company reported a loss of around $140 million in the first nine months of 2022.

CNBC previously reported that Virgin Orbit will lay off employees and suspend operations as it seeks funding.

Then, on January 9, instead of launching the first satellite from British soil, the Virgin Orbit rocket failed to enter orbit, destroying the payload: nine small satellites, including those for the US, UK and Oman governments.

This launch was the first international mission for Virgin Orbit to successfully fly missions to the US. He had to prove that her unconventional Boeing 747 launch strategy could be carried out from anywhere in the world.

On Thursday, the company said it had nearly completed its investigation into what went wrong in January.

—Mika Maidenberg contributed to this article.

Email Alistair Macdonald at Alistair.Macdonald@wsj.com

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly survey roundup.

When the Silicon Valley bank collapsed last week, it caused the stock market will start a five-day fall. V shares for regional banks, in particulardeclined significantly, even as federal regulators worked on mitigation. Investors were clearly spooked by the failure of SVB and Signature Bank, a New York-based institution that also collapsed over the weekend. But Americans didn’t have much confidence in banks and other financial institutions for a while, and most believe more regulation is needed.

Gallup asked Americans about their confidence in various institutions, including banks, even before the 1980s. While most Americans once said they had “very” or “fairly” trust in banks, that has changed dramatically since the 2008 financial crisis. In 2007, 41 percent of Americans expressed significant confidence in banks; by 2009, only 22 percent. Although this level rose again to 38 percent in 2020, it has since fallen again and has never reached the consistently high levels of the mid-90s and early 2000s.

Similar trends have been recorded in other surveys: a 2012 article published in Public opinion quarterly found that declines in banking confidence were more related to major banking scandals than to economic events and indicators such as recessions or inflation. According to Pew poll last yearfew Americans across the political spectrum believe that banks and other financial institutions “have a positive impact on the way things are going in the country these days.”

And a slightly different but complementary question from Gallup shows that not only do Americans distrust banks, they tend to have an unfavorable attitude towards them: 2022 survey, just 36 percent of Americans said they were very or somewhat positive about the banking industry, up from 40 percent a year earlier. Compare that to the 60 percent of Americans who are positive about the restaurant industry, or the 57 percent who are positive about the farming industry.

Perhaps that’s why it’s not surprising that many US banks feel they should be more regulated. A survey from Lake Research Partners/Chesapeake Beach Consulting Last October, he asked Americans about banking regulation and specific policies, garnering widespread support across the political spectrum. Sixty-six percent of Americans, including 77 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans, said they need to increase regulation of “financial companies such as Wall Street banks, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, collectors and credit card companies.” More than half of Americans said that the influence of big banks in Washington is too great. And most Americans supported a range of policy proposals made by Congress and regulators, including limiting the size and frequency of bank overdrafts and credit card fees, lowering interest rates on high-cost loans, and closing loopholes for fintech companies.

But despite the distrust of financial institutions and the desire for more regulation, Americans were not too shocked by the closure of the SVB, although the reaction from them was mixed. IN poll “Morning consultation” this week, 60 percent of voters said they supported the Biden administration’s creation of an emergency fund to cover deposits in closed banks, while 62 percent said they viewed the action as a bailout. More Reuters/Ipsos poll over the same period found that 84 percent of Americans say taxpayers shouldn’t pay to fix problems caused by irresponsible bank management, which — in that Morning Consult survey — voter bias (38 percent) cited as a major reason for SVB’s failure. Meanwhile, a YouGov poll this week showed only 6 percent of Americans consider the money they currently invest in US banks to be “very unreliable”, while 70 percent said it was very or somewhat safe. Besides, 64 percent of Americans said they backed the Silicon Valley bank bailout to protect customer deposits.

However, the majority of Americans – 54 percent – said it is very or somewhat likely that the collapse of the SVB would trigger a broader financial crisis in the US, perhaps another indication of how little American confidence in banks has been since 2008.

Other Polling Bits

• While President Biden’s approval rating continues to fall, voters are mostly supportive policies in his budget proposalin accordance with a recent survey from Morning Consult. A majority of registered voters approved almost all of the policies in Biden’s proposal, such as capping insulin at $35 a month and imposing a minimum tax of 25 percent on the richest 0.01 percent of Americans. Even a majority of Republicans approved of many of the measures: 73% of Republican voters supported a cap of insulin, and 53% supported $15 billion in free school meals.
• As the war in Ukraine continues, American attitudes towards Russia have fallen to a 34-year low. according to a Gallup poll. Only 9 percent of Americans view Russia positively, up from 15 percent a year ago and a high of 66 percent in 1991 and 2002. fell sharply around the time Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and has continued to fall since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
• More than 30 states are considering or have already enacted a ban on the popular TikTok video app, but Americans are ambivalent about whether a national ban is a good idea. new survey from Quinnipiac University. When asked if they would support a national ban on “foreign technology like TikTok,” a proportion of Americans (49 percent) said they would, while 42 percent said they would oppose it. Republicans were more likely than independents or Democrats to support a ban, while Americans aged 18 to 34 were the least likely to support a ban, with 63% saying they would oppose it.
• March madness is in full swing, and despite poll by the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts Lowell With the discovery that only 16 percent of Americans identify themselves as college basketball fans, interest in the tournament is growing. recent survey by Morning Consult. 35% of Americans said they plan to watch the men’s tournament this year, up from 29% last year. A higher proportion of Americans also plan to fill the bracket this year (23 percent) than last year (15 percent).
• In honor of the start of Taylor Swift’s last tour, both YouGov another morning consultation Recently asked fans to rate their albums. In a YouGov poll, Swift’s “Lover” came in first place, with 14% of fans citing it as their top pick, and “1989” topped a Morning Consult fan poll. results were fans seeing the color red, but they had to shake it off because, frankly, it’s very difficult to choose which album will suit you from this mastermind’s hit-filled discography, as any fan knows all too well.

Biden endorsement

According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker, 43.7% of Americans approve of Biden’s performance as president, while 51.5% disapprove (-7.8 net approval rating). At the same time last week, 43.6% approved and 51.4% disapproved (net approval rating of -7.8 points). A month ago, Biden had a 43.1% approval rating and a 51.8% disapproval rating, for a net approval rating of -8.8.