Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit Said To Extend Operations Halt After $200M Deal Talks Collapse

Richard Branson‘s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc VORB is reportedly extending its halt in operations.

What Happened: Virgin Orbit is extending its pause in operation to pursue investment, CNBC reported, citing a company-wide mail by CEO Dan Hart.

Last week, it was reported that Virgin Orbit is nearing a $200 million investment through a private share placement from Texas-based venture capital investor Matthew Brown. However, the deal talks collapsed over the weekend, said CNBC.

"Our investment discussions have been very dynamic over the past few days, they are ongoing, and not yet at a stage where we can provide a fulsome update," Hart wrote in the email to employees, as reported by CNBC.

Virgin Orbit halted all its operations starting March 16 and furloughed nearly all of its 750 employees to look out for potential funding and explore other strategic opportunities.

Virgin Orbit's financial constraints were further aggravated after it failed to deploy nine small satellites into lower Earth orbit early this year.

Last week, it was reported that Virgin Orbit is working with two restructuring firms on fallback plans for its insolvency days in the event that it cannot secure new funding.

Since listing on the Nasdaq in May 2021, Virgin Orbit shares fell 94.5% until the last close.

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