virgin mobile: Not so generous

It’s not often that minorities get better terms than the majority shareholder. But that is what might happen at Virgin Mobile, the mobile operator which NTL wants to buy. Or that, at least, is how it might look on a naive reading. Minority investors want more than the 360p a share NTL, the cable company, is prepared to pay. To end the deadlock, Sir Richard Branson, who owns 72% of Virgin Mobile, has offered them a 12p a share top-up from his own pocket. That will cost him up to £8.7m. But Brans...