1. How did Virgin begin?

Richard Branson had started the Virgin Group in the 1970s when he
and 2 friends set up a mail-order record business in London that soon
expanded into Virgin Megastore, a chain of popular record stores
across the UK.
2. What were the financial issues Virgin went through and how
did they overcome these issues? Would you have done
anything differently? Why or why not?
Most of the financial issues Virgin went through had to do with the
outside economy going into deep recessions or crashes. This caused
Virgin to suffer big losses and try some pretty risky things to keep the
company afloat/reduce the losses they were already incurring. They
tried to overcome these issues by investing into smaller ventures to try
and further expand the companys reach. But what ended up really
helping them in the 90s was investing in Transportation and selling off
Virgin Megastores and Virgin Cosmetics in 2009.
I personally wouldve done something sort of the same as Branson
because the only asset they had was their subsidiaries. And either
entering new and popular markets or selling off subsidiaries that
werent as popular in that time period or wasnt giving them enough
return would be the only logical option.
3. Virgin is known as a conglomerate. What is a conglomerate?
Please draw a chart showing all of the Virgin organizations.
A conglomerate is a number of different businesses that are put or
grouped together to form a whole company or monopoly but remain
distinct entities.

4. Create a timeline of the events discussed in the case

summarizing each event in your own words. Has anything
significance occurred since the publication of this article (May
2012)? Research will be required. Please include a link to any
source used.
1970 Virgin is created as a mail-order record company
1972 Virgins first record shop opens as well as Virgins first Recording Studio.
1973 Launch of Virgin Records
1979 Buys 2 Gay Nightclubs Heaven and Necker Island
1980 Virgin Records becomes an international company.
1981 Virgin buys the Kensington Roof Gardens, The launch of Virgin Games, and They turn
Necker Island into a luxury resort.
1983 Virgin Vision film distribution is added to their company list
1984 U.S. airlines Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Cargo is created
1985 Virgin creates a U.S. tour operator and calls it Virgin Holidays.
1987 Virgin buys into a new TV satellite channel British Satellite Broadcasting
and an independent producer of music programs Music Box.
1987 Expansion of Virgin Games through acquisition of Rushes Postproduction, the launch
of Virgin Airship & Balloon, and the creation of Mates condoms to promote condoms to young
adults.
1988 Acquisition of British Olympic Studios and the expansion of Virgin Records to include
Virgin Classics and of Virgin Broadcasting. They also sell their equity stake British Satellite
Broadcasting
1991 Launch of Virgin Books
1992 Sale of Virgin Records to Thorn EMI.
1993 Virgin Radio is officially created and on the radio.
1994 Creation of beverage companies Virgin Vodka and Virgin Cola.
1995 Launch of financial company Virgin Direct; acquisition of Belgian airline and launch of
Virgin
Express; launch of music label V2 Music and of U.K. cinema network Virgin Cinemas.
1996 Launch Virgin.Net, bridal wear company Virgin Brides, and Virgin
Trains as well as the boat Virgin Victory. At the same time they acquired majority shares in
London Broncos rugby team.
1997 Sale of Virgin Radio; launch of Virgin Cosmetics.
1998 Launch of Virgin Mobile UK.
1999 Acquisition and launch of gym networks Virgin Active in South Africa, the United
Kingdom, and
Italy; sale of London Broncos and Virgin Cinemas.
2000 Launch of Australian airline Virgin Blue, Virgin Energy, Virgin Cars, Virgin Mobile
Australia, Virgin Mobile USA, and boutique luxury-hotel chain Virgin Limited Edition; sale of
Rushes Postproduction.
2002 Virgin Direct becomes Virgin Money; launch of online motorbike retailer Virgin Bikes.
2003 Launch of Virgin Mobile France; Virgin Blue becomes publicly traded ; sale of nightclub
Heaven.
2004 Launch of commercial space company Virgin Galactic; sale of Virgin Cars and Virgin
Bikes.
2005 Merger of Virgin Express with Brussels Airlines;
2006 Launch of clean fuel producer Virgin Fuel and of Virgin Active Spain; sale of Virgin Mobile
Australia; A partnership begins between Virgin Money South Africa and a local bank.
2007 Launch of Virgin Active Portugal, Virgin Health Bank, Virgin Media, airline Virgin America,
Virgin Radio Italia, and Virgin Money USA; purchase of 20% stake in AirAsia X; sale of Virgin
Megastores in the United Kingdom and Ireland; closing of Virgin Digital to sell music through its
website
2009 Launch of Virgin Healthcare and of Virgin Money Giving, sale of 50% stake in Virgin

Mobile
Canada and Virgin Mobile USA; sale of a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic; sale of Virgin Cosmetics
2010 Launch of Virgin Racing and sale of controlling stake; launch of
Gaming; launch of film and television development, packaging, and production
company Virgin Produced; launch of iPad magazine Project, a digital magazine for Apples iPad;
the dissolution of Virgin Money.
2011 Acquisition of health care provider Assura Medical and of Scottish bank Church House
Trust Plc
by Virgin Money; launch of submarine manufacturer Virgin Oceans and of hotel chain Virgin
Hotels USA.

After the Case Study was finished

2012 - Virgin Money buys Northern Rock
2012 - Virgin Galactic announces the development of orbital space launch system
LauncherOne.
2013 - Virgin Media sold to Liberty Global
2015 - Virgin launches Virgin Trains East Coast

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Richard_Branson
%27s_business_ventures