Richard Branson is in exclusive talks to potentially merge Virgin Group's small-satellite operator Virgin Orbit, LLC with former Goldman Sachs banker George Mattson's special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, NextGen Acquisition Corp. II (NasdaqCM:NGCA), with a view to the combined entity then going public at a $3-billion (EUR 2.5 billion) valuation, Sky News reported. A deal with NextGen Acquisition II could allegedly be made public over the next few weeks.