Rutan is only providing the hardware to Branson. Scaled composites is seperate from Branson’s operation. It’s like Boeing vs Delta. Rutan must have realized he neede more resources at his disposal to achieve his follow on goal, an orbital capability as opposed to the suborbital ship hes building. I hope he doesn’t get shuffled aside in the process.
Rutan probably will get shunted aside. That’s the way big corporations work. Buy a startup company with a good idea & the entrepreneur gets it in the neck. Either that or Rutan will wake-up one day and realize that he doesn’t like working for a major corporation.