I can see them ripe for a similar situation to BMi in a few short years, not that beardy would ever let IAG get their hands on VS.
I tend to agree with your opinion of Virgin's prospects, however I cannot really support the rest of the statement. It was said for many years that SMB would not "get into bed" with the bearded one because of a personality clash. I am sure that the only reason was the fact the Richard never had sufficient readies to make a deal, something well demonstrated by the derisory offer he made LH for bmi. I bet that if IAG made a sufficiently large offer he would be off before you could say "Sir Richard has left the building"!