Kind of amusing to see people assuming this came as some kind of surprise to VS. Unless they had their eyes and ears shut for a long time, they knew it was coming and probably before we did.
Of course VS want to link up with this, and it might make a lot of commercial sense than LH trying to come in "cold" to Heathrow and do long haul..there is quite a lot of synergy there...
As for baby? Adoption will most likely in the near future, IMHO.