In the 1980s, British Airways regarded Concorde as its flagship, both prestigious and profitable. The flag carrier was privatised and floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1987 by the Conservative government, the initial share offering was nine times oversubscribed. The privatisation of British Airways was regarded as very successful by industry observers, perhaps the most successful of a series of companies divested by the state in this era. Four months later, in July 1987, BA announced the controversial takeover of Britain's "second" airline, British Caledonian. The acquisition led to concerns regarding competition; within the industry it was widely acknowledged as a mutually agreed rescue deal to avoid the latter's collapse. The Caledonian name was kept alive, the charter subsidiary British Airtours being rebranded as Caledonian Airways. In 1992, BA absorbed Gatwick-based British carrier Dan-Air. Soon after British Airways' privatisation, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways began to emerge as a competitor on some of BA's most lucrative routes. Following Virgin's highly publicised mercy mission to Iraq to fly home hostages of Saddam Hussein in 1991, King is reported to have told Marshall and his PA Director David Burnside to "do something about Branson". This began the campaign of "dirty tricks" that ended in Branson suing King and British Airways for libel in 1992. King countersued Branson and the case went to trial in 1993. British Airways, faced with likely defeat, settled the case, giving £500,000 to Branson and a further £110,000 to his airline; furthermore, BA was to pay the legal fees of up to . Branson divided the compensation among his staff, the so-called "BA bonus." British Airways and Virgin Atlantic continued to be noticeably bitter and active rivals for many years afterwards. During the 1990s, British Airways became the world's most profitable airline under the slogan "The World's Favourite Airline". In 1992, it bought the small German domestic airline Delta Air Transport and renamed it Deutsche BA. By the time it was sold in June 2003, Deutsche BA was operating 16 and had 800 staff. British Airways also entered the French market in 1994 by purchasing a 49.9% stake in TAT European Airlines, and 70% of Air Liberté in 1997, seeking to challenge the dominance of Air France.  1993 was a highly significant year of expansion and change for British Airways, as it purchased a 25% stake in Australian airline Qantas, a 24% stake in American airline USAir, and wholly acquired Brymon Airways to form BA Connect.