Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after failing to secure new capital. Last week the satellite launch company told employees it was ceasing operations for the foreseeable future and laid off nearly 90% of its staff.

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• Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 as a spinoff of Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism company.
  • Branson owns a 75% stake in Virgin Orbit.
• The company has had four successful missions since 2020 and two failed launches.
• Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware and is looking to sell its assets.
• Virgin Orbit said it had received a $31.6M commitment from Virgin Investments through debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. 
• Virgin Orbit’s outgoing COO Tony Gingiss called out the company’s leadership in a companywide email apologizing to employees.

Frank founder Charlie Javice has been charged by the DOJ with fraud in connection to the sale of her financial-aid company to JPMorgan Chase. Javice was arrested on Monday and faces four charges: conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and securities fraud. 

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• According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Javice lied about Frank’s customer base, claiming the financial-aid company had 4.25 million users while it had fewer than 300,000.
• Javice is accused of hiring an outside data scientist to fabricate data for the other few million purported accounts.
• JPMorgan said it learned of the scheme during an email-marketing campaign in early 2022.
• The first three charges each carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, while securities fraud has a maximum sentence of 20 years.
  • Javice was also sued by the SEC for fraud.
• According to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, Javice stood to earn $45M from the sale.

ExxonMobil said its Low Carbon business has the potential to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and outperform the company’s traditional oil and gas business. Dan Ammann, the president of Exxon’s Low Carbon Business Solutions unit, noted that the new unit would have a much more stable or less cyclical profile compared to the company’s traditional oil and gas business.

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• Exxon plans to spend $10B by 2027 on reducing carbon emissions from its own operations.
• Unlike other oil and gas firms that are exploring opportunities in renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, Exxon has focused on other energy sources.
• Exxon is exploring carbon capture, hydrogen, and biofuels, which are estimated to have a combined potential of $6.5T by 2050.
• Exxon announced it had signed a long-term agreement with multinational chemical company Linde to decarbonize its operations.

General Motors said about 5,000 of its salaried workers and executives have accepted voluntary buyout offers through a separation program announced last month. The U.S. automaker expects to take a $1B charge during the quarter due to the program.

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• GM CFO Paul Jacobson said the opt-in rate for the “Voluntary Separation Program” was in line with company expectations.
• Last month, CEO Mary Barra said that if not enough employees participated in the program, the automaker might resort to layoffs.
• The company expects most of the employees who took the buyout to leave the company by the end of June.
• The headcount reduction is part of GM’s plans to cut $2B in structural costs by the end of 2024.
• GM shares fell about 2% following the news; it closed at $35.74 on Tuesday, down ~1.5% for the day.

Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann apologized to shareholders at the bank’s annual general meeting on Tuesday over the sudden collapse of the 167-year-old bank. Last month, Swiss authorities brokered an emergency rescue of Credit Suisse by merging it with domestic rival UBS for about $3B.

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• Lehmann told shareholders he was truly sorry that the bank was unable to stem the loss of trust that had accumulated over the years.
• Lehmann said the bank’s leadership fought hard to find a solution, but ultimately there were only two options: deal or bankruptcy.
• Some shareholders took the stage during the meeting to demand further explanation of the process and reasoning behind the deal.
  • Neither UBS nor Credit Suisse shareholders were allowed a vote on the deal.
• Lehmann was re-elected as chairman until the completion of the merger, receiving 55.67% of shareholder votes. 

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $8.9B over the next 25 years to settle thousands of claims that its talc-based baby powder caused cancer. J&J still maintains that the claims are specious and lack scientific merit.

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• J&J stopped selling its talc-based baby powder globally in 2023 following thousands of claims from customers that it caused cancer due to asbestos contamination.
• The majority of the lawsuits were filed by women who say they developed ovarian cancer after years of using either Johnson’s Baby Powder or a former J&J product, Shower to Shower.
• J&J said more than 60,000 claimants have committed to support the proposed settlement.
• In 2021, J&J spun off subsidiary LTL Management LLC to reduce its losses from litigation and settlements. 
  • The company assigned its talc lawsuits to the subsidiary and declared it bankrupt in an attempt at a “Texas two-step.”
  • A three-judge panel in late January dismissed J&J’s petition in a landmark case that, if upheld on appeal, could deter other solvent corporations from using the bankruptcy process to manage litigation.

Quick Hits

• Quickly familiarize yourself with building on Google Cloud with real-world examples and code snippets in this Google Cloud Cookbook.*
• Finland officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Tuesday, becoming the alliance’s 31st member. The decision comes a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s decision to join NATO had compelled Moscow to take unspecified countermeasures to ensure its security.
• The IRS has extended the tax filing deadline for individuals impacted by the recent storms and tornadoes that swept through several states last week. Victims now have until July 31 to file individual and business tax returns. The regular deadline this year is April 18.
• Former President Donald Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme that directed hush money payments to two women before the 2016 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.
• Consulting firm McKinsey & Co. is shutting down its corporate-restructuring business following multiple lawsuits and government investigations.
• The Miami Heat’s basketball arena will be renamed the Kaseya Center after a bankruptcy judge terminated FTX’s naming rights contract. Software company Kaseya and Miami-Dade County reached a $117M, 17-year agreement.
• Sharpen your math, data, and CS skills with Brilliant. Quick, hands-on lessons make learning fun and easy. Over 10M+ people agree, so try it today.*

*This is a sponsored post.

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