Richard Branson is one of the most innovative, creative billionaires out there, and his latest project provides further evidence of that. Virgin Money USA, which opened for business on Monday, is designed to make it easier to lend money to friends and family more formally. A little bit like Prosper.com, Virgin Money USA will act as a conduit between parties, providing a platform and legal/tax documentation for informal loans.

According to The New York Times, "Virgin Money USA will offer personal and business loans, mortgages and reverse mortgages. The average interest rate for loans is 6 percent, and for mortgages, 5 percent. Borrowers are charged a $9 per payment administrative fee and will pay an upfront charge ranging from $99 for unsecured loans to $2,000 for large mortgages. Borrowers can select terms of their loans, including the duration and rates. The bank will not retain any of the interest."

So technically the loans will be made by Virgin (just as technically Prosper loans are made by Prosper), but the risk will all be held by the friends and family of the borrowers.

The fees ($9 per payment adds up on a small personal loan) make this look like a very questionable move for consumers. And lending money to friends and family is something that should be avoided whenever possible anyway. But in the wake of the subprime meltdown, and the need for emergency loans from friends and family, Virgin Money USA could be well-positioned for success.

Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. (NYSE: VM) launched its IPO right after the open today. Billionaire Richard Branson's pay-as-you-go cellular telecom services that uses the Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) network has raised $412.5 million based on 27,500,000 shares at $15.00 per share, which is actually at the lower end of the $15.00 to $17.00 range. Was the reception poor, or was it conservative?

The lead underwriter and book runner was Lehman Brothers, and joint book-runners were Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns. The over-allotment option for underwriters is listed as 4,125,000 shares. Not much has changed since the original coverage of the IPO at the filing date.

As of June 30, 2007, Virgin claimed 4.83 million customers. Revenues and net loss for the year ended December 31, 2006 were approximately $1.1 Billion and -$36.7 million; Revenues and net income for the six months ended June 30, 2007 were approximately $666.9 million and $26.5 million, respectively. As of June 30, 2007 and December 31, 2006, members' accumulated deficit was approximately $(614.4) million and $(643.9) million, respectively.

It seems as though the interest faded here, and part of it may be the entire venture status combined with a cellular market that is deemed as just about fully matured in the lower-end pricing plans. Shares did trade under the $15.00 pricing for a bit after the open, but are up to $15.40 at the 30-minute mark.

Jon C. Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

I first took up a camera around the age of nine, but it wasn't until I discovered Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s Flickr photo-sharing site that my "career" in photography really took off. While I'm certainly not hitting the runways of Milan with my Pentax PZ-1P anytime soon, this year I sold several photographs and permitted dozens of others to use my work under the Creative Commons license with which I offer my photos. (My choice is a non-commercial attribution license; as I use many of my photos for work, here on BloggingStocks, I'd hate to see rivals utilizing them as well.)

After extensive conversations with IP attorneys and other authorities in the industry, and given my responsibility of overseeing the use of thousands of photos each year, my grasp of all the legal issues surrounding commercial use of intellectual property is deep. One of the thorniest issues is that of what's called "model release," in other words, if someone's IN your photo, can you still use it?

Just in case you needed one more example of litigious stupidity, here it is. It seems that a Dallas family has filed suit against the Australian, Virgin Mobile communications company over the allegedly improper use of a photo gleaned from the Flikr photo sharing site, as reported by Associated Press. That's "photo sharing" as in, here's my picture to look at and use.

Stupid part one is that the advertising company that created the visual advertising mechanisms which are allegedly making questionable use of a girl's photo should have a general idea about what materials they're using, where they came from and what conditions surround those materials, such as rights and restrictions. They still teach about copyright in advertising school right? Just in case they don't, Flickr has a really understandable explanation of creative commons license right there on its site. It's by the photos. Advertising guys from Australia should probably read that.

Sir Richard Branson is selling Virgin Megastores to a management buyout team and exiting the music retailing business four decades after it helped him start on the road to becoming a mogul. Some odd, bold move or calculated business strategy? It's easily the latter.

With music retailing slowly morphing into an industry that uses internet downloads and digital forms of music instead of the physical CD, the move should not come as a surprise to anyone. From an economic perspective, the music industry worldwide is reaping what it sows as sales of $15 CDs are losing out to the 99 cent download. Plus, there are "subscription" music services where customers can 'rent' music for a monthly fee and never have to buy or carry another CD again.

Branson's move here, even in the industry that started his career as a global entrepreneur, has been timed perfectly. Branson, like most business owners, knows entrance and exit strategies with the best of them, and apparently he sees the brick-and-mortar music retailing business slowly becoming extinct in the iPod age.

Should other music retailers listen up? Most of them have, and have dropped prices on CDs to levels comparable to music downloads, or are using CDs as loss leaders to get traffic inside stores for other, higher-margin purchases. But, for Branson to sell off what was his business baby should signal a shift to the music retailers who have not listened so far: compete in the new internet music distribution era or perish.

USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh had an interesting Q&A session with Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic Airways, on last week's inaugural flight from New York JFK Airport to San Francisco. Reading Branson's description of the new Virgin flights made me want to book a flight to San Fran immediately.

What interested me from the start of the interview was one of things that Branson said would set Virgin America apart from the other U.S. carriers, something he planned to introduce called "premium economy class." He described this as seating that would be "for people who want more legroom but can't afford first class." Mind you that the most expensive first-class tickets Virgin America has right now are approximately $650, but who wants to pay that for a flight when you can have "premium economy class?"

A quick check on Virgin Atlantic's website, because Virgin America has yet to initiate this service, and they show me that premium economy seating has 38 inches of leg room, compared to the standard 33 inches in economy seating, and a seat width of 21 inches. This is has to be a dream! Once this "premium economy class" comes to Virgin America, I'm certainly going to think of using them for my next flight. More space for less money, it's an amazing concept. I just hope they can last that long in the States with Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA), AirTran (NYSE: AAI), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), US Airways (NYSE: LCC), JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) and all the other U.S. carriers competing for the same ticket.

As of today, there's a new airline in the skies: Virgin America. That's right folks: British Billionaire Richard Branson has expanded his Virgin Atlantic fleet across the pond. The new San Francisco-based start-up will use a fleet of Airbus A320's to fly two routes: San Francisco to J.F.K in New York and San Francisco to Los Angeles International.

While Virgin America will only open with those two routes, they plan on ramping its schedule fast. In the next three months, Virgin will add Las Vegas and Washington Dulles to the schedule and move up to a total 10 U.S. destinations a year from now. The fleet plans to service 30 destinations within the next five years.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM), the education loan company, has agreed to sell itself for $25B to J.P. Morgan Chase and Co (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC).
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Clear Channel Communications Inc (NYSE: CCU) have agreed to a multi-year deal in which Google will sell advertising on Clear Channel's 675-plus radio stations.

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the Daily Mail, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin is planning on taking on Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ: RYAAY) in a air fare war for transatlantic routes.
• Nestle SA ADS (OTC: NSRGY) has reportedly placed a bid to acquire India's Mount Everest Mineral Water, according to the Economic Times.
• The U.K. Times reported that it has emerged that a key BP plc ADS (NYSE: BP) pipeline has been closed for over six months due to suspected corrosion.

Richard Branson has never been afraid of big ideas, or standing outside the CW, with businesses like Virgin Galactic. It may have taken him a while to come around to the evidence of global warming, but now that he has, he is using his new-found belief to create another business based on innovation: Virgin Fuel. In a recent Interview with Business 2.0, Branson talked about his new awareness of long-term climate changes and his new enterprise to develop a super fuel -- clean burning and, he hopes, very profitable. Branson plans to invest "something like $1 billion in alternative fuels" across the board through the end of this decade. But Virgin Fuel is something else. He's cautiously mum on the details, noting only that it will be a "clean burning" but non-ethanol-base fuel, but he's not cautious about his expectations, predicting the new fuel will not only fly Virgin's jets, but also predicting the fuel "will work in cars and trucks and trains within a year." And I admit to salivating when he talks this way.

Will Virgin Fuel become the next Virgin Records, or will it become the next Virgin Brides?

(Disclosure: I have no financial interests or involvement with Virgin.)