Who is the owner of Virgin Mobile?

Virgin Mobile is the name of a series of wireless communication brand partnerships in 11 countries worldwide. Some of the brand licensees have bought out the controlling interests of the Virgin Group, founded and owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, while maintaining the Virgin Mobile brand.

Virgin Mobile USA, for example, became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Sprint Corporation after a buy-out in 2009 for $483 million. Sprint, in turn, had 78 percent of its stock purchased in July 2013 by the Japanese telecommunications company Softbank Corporation. As the majority owner of Sprint, Softbank also has a majority ownership of Virgin Mobile USA.