Branson Giving �3Billion over 10 years to save the planet..

[Loosehead]

I think It's extremely generous of Sir Richard to do what he announced recently, just one thing I can't explain. He says that he'll give all the profits from Virgin's transport interests to fund anti polution reasearch etc, so far so good. Will that then not mean that the shareholders will get no dividend? Will that not in turn mean they'll sell their shares? Will that not have the effect of reducing the share price to bu66er all? Will that not then leave the company open to a asset stripping hostile take over? In the end there will be no money to dish out. Now I know that Sir Richard would have thought about this so can some economist please tell me how they are going to avoid the above scenario?

[admarlow]

I don't think that this will happen as he will still pay dividends plus I feel that this idea will be very goood for his business, increasing share prices.

[metagirl]

i think its great to see ridiculously rich people donate money to worthy causes ala Bill Gates. It reminds me of the ******* of the late 19th and early 20th century. Carnegie and the public libraries in both the UK and America, Rockefeller, Strauss, etc.

It is time that those who have money are taking the lead - now lets see what the Government does about it!

[metagirl]

that was supposed to be t y c o o n s !

[Carakeel]

Richard Branson is a great man for coming up with this idea. Amazing that the government of a huge country like the USA is only giving the same amount towards this most worthy and important cause!!! Branson puts the US President and his government as well as all the other rich governments to shame with this incredibly generous donation. Let's just hope it makes them stop, think about how vital this work is and take further action to finding a solution to the pollution and destruction of this beautiful planet. I am pretty sure that the money he will be donating will be from the profits, after the shareholders have had their dividends. So, where is Bill Gates when the planet needs him? I know he too does a lot for good causes, but perhaps he too could give up some of his billions to this? It will be interesting who else of the many billionaires in the world, decide to join Richard in this challenge.

[jake-the-peg]

I think you'll find him here:

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm

Did you miss all that stuff about the Gates Foundation a few months back?

[Booldawg]

the guy owns an airline. its a bit like Pol Pot donating money to Amnesty International.

[jno]

I think a lot of his businesses are privately held - I seem to recall he floated the music shops on the stock exchange, then took them private again. Not sure just how many of them have shareholders.

[dot.hawkes]

i remember when all he had to live off was the profits from Tubular Bells. it sold like hot cakes though, even in the sleepy market town i worked in in 1973.

[Lonnie]

I don't think he's actually giving, what he's doing, is to divert that money into eco-friendly trains, planes etc, but its staying in his own business, keeping it 'in-house'. Clever man, our Richard Branson.

[pentdragon]

Richard Branson for prime minister.
Think he could do this country a world of good, knows how to handle money, would probably care about the ordinary people, come on how down to earth is he.
Wow would be great if Branson and Mc Cartney got together and said "come on we have the money between us, so lets sort this country out, And start a new political party up,".
I would vote for them straight away, Unless of course they did nothing about the amount of people coming into this country, come on it has to stop somewhere, it's only a little island.