On Wednesday, Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit said that they are pausing all operations from March 16. According to the news agency Reuters, the satellite launch company, which is part of Branson's Virgin Group, has also sent almost all of their employees on a furlough.
In a meeting, Chief Executive Dan Hart told staff that the furlough was given to them with the intent to buy some time for Virgin Orbit to finalise a new investment plan to help pull the company out of its financial crisis, reported Reuters.
As per the Reuters report, the duration of furlough given to the employees is not clear yet, but Hart said he would provide employees with an update by the middle of next week about their return to the workplace.
There has been a significant drop in shares of the company; Virgin Orbit's shares dropped 18.8 per cent to 82 cents in extended trading.
CNBC first reported last month that Virgin Orbit said that they were looking into why their January mission to launch nine small satellites into lower Earth orbit (LEO) from the coastal town of Newquay in southwest England failed. The mission's failure caused the company a serious blow and worsened its financial problems.
The company said earlier on this matter, “On the ops side, our investigation is nearly complete, and our next production rocket with the needed modification incorporated is in the final stages of integration and test.”
There have been several layoffs due to loss in business in the recent past, and even though the IT sector has been at the centre of these layoffs, other sectors are also not untouched. Moreover, experts have even predicted that the layoffs due to the economic crisis in 2023 will worsen before the situation improves.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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