The Ledger, every show
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks, across all 44 shows. Pick shows below, then mix any filter with any other.
shows 
every show 44 of 44
Branson: Virgin won the largest damages payout in UK history against British Airways
“And in the end, we took them to court. We won the biggest damages in UK history, and it was Christmas time.”
Branson asserts the 2014 SpaceShipTwo crash was pilot error, not technical
“Once we realized it was a pilot area, not a technical area, I was able to tell all the engineers that it was nothing to do with them and that the basic craft was sound”
Branson physically threw out a bank manager threatening to close Virgin
“I find the bank manager sitting on my doorstep, and stupidly I invited him into the house, and he tells me that he's gonna close the whole Virgin Group down on the Monday, and I don't normally get angry, but I just literally stood up and pushed him out of my h…”
Virgin started as the first mail-order business to discount music records
“Nobody had ever sold music at a cheaper price than the normal retail price and it was the start of Virgin.”
Branson sold Virgin Records for $1 billion to fund Virgin Atlantic
“In order to keep all the jobs protected at Virgin Records and at the airline, I needed to sell something, and so, very sadly, we sold Virgin Records. We got a billion dollars for it, so it would make sure that we kept BA honest.”
Branson avoided a 35% tax by faking record exports until caught
“If you export records, you don't have to pay the 35% tax. So, nautily, we sold them in England, and anyway, I got caught and a number of other record shops are doing the same thing. We got a rap on our back of our hand, and it has taught me in life that sleepi…”
Branson founded Virgin Records because seven labels rejected Mike Oldfield's demo
“We didn't have a record company, so I took it to seven record companies, nobody would put it out, and so I thought, screw it, let's do it, let's, let's start our own record company.”
Virgin Group operates roughly two hundred companies worldwide
“There's a couple of hundred companies around the world.”
Branson's Student Magazine achieved circulation of over 100,000 copies per issue
“It had a circulation, which is quite big in England, of over a 100,000 copies in issue.”
Branson opened Virgin's first record store after a postal strike threatened mail-order
“We only opened a record shop when the post office went on strike for two months, and our mail order company then looked in peril, so we then went above a shoe shop in Oxford Street and found an empty space and threw some records and pillows on the floor and he…”