Virgin Mobile USA’s (NYSE: VM) (NYSE:VM) IPO went off yesterday, selling 27.5 million shares at $15 a pop to raise $412 million. That’s the low end of expectations, as the range was forecast to be $15-17 per share—Underwriters, led by Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, have the option to buy another 4.1 million shares to cover overallotments reports Reuters. About 44 percent of the company was floated, with Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) keeping a reduced stake of about 17.2 percent and Richard Branson’s group around 35.7 percent. Most of the proceeds of the sale will go to Sprint as a loan repayment and for the shares it sold. Back in July it said it was only intending to keep $21.4 million of the cash for its own general corporate purposes.

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