The two most telling quotes in the article...

"Alaska executives have been quoted since the merger announcement as saying they will "study" the Virgin operation, but have yet to decide whether to keep the carrier's fleet and its unique brand."

"The Virgin Group founder insists he's committed to making the merger work, but is prepared to launch a new airline if Alaska doesn't protect the Virgin brand. The brand licensing reverts to him."

So basically Alaska bought Virgin and might not keep the planes or the brand that it bought. And if it doesn't use the Virgin brand, Branson is going to come start another Airbus flown Virgin America and re-take its loyal customer base.

Branson gets out of $1.5B in debts, gets $2.6B in cash, and is going to do it all over again because he "likes starting things".