On July 11, Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, flew high above New Mexico, US, in a rocket planet that had taken the company almost two decades to develop. The trip, which lasted just over an hour, was labelled as an experience of a lifetime by the Virgin Galactic founder.
A company filing showed that Virgin Galactic made a distribution agreement with investment banks Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs to sell up to $500 million of shares. In light of this news, company shares did a U-turn, dropping 12% after gaining approximately 20% in pre-market trade.
The agreement saw £1 billion wiped from the company’s market capitalisation. Trading in Virgin Galactic was also temporarily halted on Monday morning due to volatility.
Virgin Galactic plans to use the proceeds from the sale for corporate matters, including working capital, capital expenditures for manufacturing, general and administrative purposes, and the development of its spacecraft fleet. Following Sir Richard Branson’s flight to space, the company plans to conduct at least two more test flights of its space vehicles in the coming months. By 2022, the Virgin Galactic plans to begin its regular commercial operation, enabling members of the public to fly to space.
Sage, a market leader in cloud accounting software, welcome over 15,000 entrepreneurs and Small & Medium business owners from around the world to Chicago for this year’s Sage Summit, the world’s largest gathering of entrepreneurs and business builders.
The theme of the event (July 25-28), which is expected to almost double the capacity of last year’s event in New Orleans, features some of the biggest stars of the entertainment and business world, invited to share their passion for business, life, and helping others.
Sage is expected to unveil new product launches, with CEO Stephen Kelly using his keynote speech to announce new tools, technologies and partnerships. A donation to an inspiring Chicago charity will also be announced and surprise guests will join the keynote speakers throughout the week, including local Chicago heroes. To close the annual event, The Killers will perform hits like ‘Mr Brightside’ and ‘When we were young’.
Joining Stephen Kelly on the keynote agenda is Sir Richard Branson, alongside:
Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar-winning Actress, founder and CCO of goop, a lifestyle newsletter that sets trends.
Zooey Deschanel, actress, singer-songwriter, and co-founder of HelloGiggles, a positive online community for women which was recently acquired by Time Inc.
Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO of Herjavec Group and investor on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning hit show “Shark Tank”
Daymond John, Founder/CEO of FUBU, Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, star of ABC's Shark Tank and CEO of The Shark Group.
Ashton Kutcher, actor, entrepreneur, tech investor, and producer
Yancey Strickler, cofounder and CEO of Kickstarter
Bringing together Sage’s customers, partners, and colleagues, Sage Summit is designed to encourage learning and networking, while celebrating the power of the global entrepreneurial Business community.
For the first time, Sage Summit will have a dedicated series of events for millennials to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, building on Sage’s commitment to invest in programmes to give this group of talent the right business foundations.
Stephen Kelly, CEO of Sage, said: “This week, Chicago becomes the hub for the world’s entrepreneurs. This community is the most powerful driver of economic prosperity in the global economy, creating two thirds of all jobs. This week, we celebrate these business builders, and we also seek to support them and inspire them, giving them a voice on the world stage and creating the technology of tomorrow. Sage Summit will be like rocket fuel for their businesses and we can’t wait to welcome them to this unforgettable event.’
Sage Summit is being supported by Microsoft as Titanium Sponsor, Salesforce as Diamond Sponsor, Fairsail, Scanforce, U.S. Bank, and Website Pipeline as Platinum Sponsors and Aatrix, Acom Solutions, Altec, Certify, Edisoft, Expensify, Kimble, Nextec, One, Vertex, ZAP as Gold Sponsors.
(Source: Sage)
