The rapid expansion of the Virgin empire added fuel to the view commonly held within the music industry that Richard Branson was an ambitious, clever, acquisitive and highly idiosyncratic maverick.

In July 2008, Gotham announced a partnership with Richard Branson's Virgin empire to launch Virgin Comics in India.

Virgin Atlantic Airways, once the cash cow of the Virgin empire, estimated that it lost £90 million in the year ended in April.

Holly qualified as a doctor, and now works in the Virgin empire, and Sam is working on this documentary.

Of the 270 companies in the Virgin empire, only one - Virgin Express, a budget airline in which Sir Richard owns 59 percent - is publicly traded.

Indeed, some insurance companies and even Richard Branson's Virgin empire are also getting into direct banking in Britain.

Other than a small arm of Richard Branson's Virgin empire and some other minor players, that leaves just Qantas, which lacks the capacity to replace all the grounded Ansett flights.

The 33-year-old works for the space-travel branch of the Virgin empire.

He is expected to retain a majority stake in Virgin Atlantic, however, the centerpiece of the Virgin empire.

Less than a year later, Fuji seems more than willing to pay £100m for a minority share in the music arm which, with sales of £260m, represents much less than half of the Virgin empire.