I don't know, it didn't sound like he was trying to keep it a secret to me.
I think he intentionally dropped that in there, maybe to get SMB and other stakeholders riyal. It's no secret he's been trying to make takeover attempts in the past, but also in the context of what he was saying, it doesn't necessarily bring about any new knowledge. Combined with the other thread about takeover rumours however...that does make it a bit more interesting, but then again...much of politics works on rumours and takeovers involve a lot of politics, especially in the aviation industry.
I've made a transcript of the interesting part of that show before it goes offline.
Interviewer = Evan Davis (ED)
Taking about business philanthropy and environment.
Specifically about Richard Branson's recent green energy revolution pledge.
ED: Have you felt peer-pressure to do something about this, because environment has become the issue of the year, and did you feel a sort of a need, to be on the green side of the line rather than the other side?
RB: I'm not sure it's so much peer pressure, urm I think that you do things for lots of different reasons. We are in the airline business and airlines emit about two percent of the CO2...you know, yes maybe I've got a conscience, should..we should [laugh], should we're..if you're in a position to do something, you should do it.
ED: "and what about the Greens who say, look this is ridiculous, you can't run an airline and, be green"
RB: "we're, we're we're trying to buy British Midland so this isn't completely self serving.
Urm, you could argue that short haul airlines when people could choose trains could be taxed and people should be discouraged from flying on short hauler planes when you've got alternative, far more CO2 friendly ways of travelling.
On long international flights there's no alternative but to fly on a plane, so I think on those you just got to invest money on getting the planes more efficient, trying to persuade the airline manufacturers to make the planes out of lightweight materials rather than metal, and try to come up with alternative fuels and invest a lot of money in trying to do that."
ED: Right, let's open it up...