Richard Branson's busy schedule

Sir Richard Branson (pictured at left) is a busy dealmaker. Only days after his nascent U.S. airline Virgin America received a thumbs-up from the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate in the United States, he is reportedly in talks to sell Virgin Media Inc., a British cabler, for $15 billion. The group of bidders headed by Providence Equity Partners is reportedly trying to seize on VM's trouble with rival BskyB. The dispute, which started last year when VM (then known as NTL) attempted to buy ITV plc, now has left VM customers without the Sky Network and 3 other popular BskyB channels leading to a loss of subscribers, according to The Observer. A sale of Virgin Media would not only help Branson free himself from the troubles with BskyB, but also would reportedly net him about $800 million—which he'll need considering the failure rate of U.S. discount airlines. —Matthew Wurtzel

See Virgin Media story from The Observer
See related story about ITV from TheDeal.com
See Virgin America story from The San Francisco Chronicle
See earlier post about Virgin America

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