Chapter 804: Why Not Be a Scalper?
Luke was amused. “Are they starting to spread rumors now?”
Jenny was lost for words. “Well… it’s not a rumor.”
Luke was stumped. “What?”
Jenny said, “Two branch managers in New York were already discovered to be in cahoots with scalpers; they made tens of thousands of dollars for themselves.”
Luke was surprised. “How many phones did they sell? Over a thousand?”
Only fifty thousand t.i.tanium phones had been released for August, and most of the branches only had a few thousand in stock; over a thousand phones sold via scalpers was a huge issue.
Jenny said, “No; they jacked up the prices of the phones which they sold to the scalpers by 150 to 300 dollars. The two managers took out over 200 phones from the New York stores.”
Luke gritted his teeth. “Are you kidding me? Then what do the scalpers earn?”
Jenny said, “According to our investigation, the scalpers have already put up the cell phones for auction. The 1G models start at a base price of 600 dollars, and the 2G phones are selling for over a thousand dollars.”
“Holy sh*t!” Hearing the prices, Luke couldn’t help but curse. “Aren’t the managers and scalpers earning more than us then?”
Jenny smiled bitterly. “That’s how it is. Fine, I admit I was wrong. I was too conservative with the initial sales plan. You warned me.”
Luke didn’t think too much of it. He comforted her with a smile. “Who can have incredible foresight in doing business? You’re already the youngest and most beautiful businesswoman in America. If you didn’t make any mistakes, I would be under a lot of pressure.”
“Darling, you’re really too considerate.” Jenny said, “These are the kind of nice things I want to hear you say to me.”
Luke said with a smile, “Don’t be too nervous. It’s easier to make mistakes when you’re nervous. The phone company will expand quickly for the next year or two. The faster the company develops, the firmer your footing will be. The company can hire more people… Right, I’ve asked Bobby to come back. When he’s done with the gold mine, he’ll help you with background checks.”
Jenny was rea.s.sured.
Luke had once said that Bobby was a professional “psychoa.n.a.lyst,” which he had demonstrated when he partic.i.p.ated in various negotiations with her.
Although it was a little strange for him to have poor communication skills as a PR manager, he was good at his job since he could sense the emotions of his opponents when negotiating.
Bobby would indeed be very useful if the phone company wanted to establish a solid foundation.
After that, Jenny returned to the topic. “What about the sales plan?”
Luke said, “It’s up to you. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to sell a million t.i.tanium phones before the end of the year, right?”
“Darling, you really know how to encourage people.” Jenny was amused.
He was the only person who would downplay making a profit of hundreds of millions on his first venture.
But now that she had gotten approval for her idea, she relaxed and quickly hung up.
There was a lot on her plate recently and she was too busy to talk to Luke.
During this period of time, her transformation was also astonis.h.i.+ng.
Prior to Weyland’s investment, Jenny had also pulled out her own a.s.sets from financial projects, and turned them into twenty million which she invested in the phone company.
She used this opportunity to increase her financial standing against Weyland. After Weyland’s investment, she held on to 5% more shares than Weyland.
Now that the phone company was worth three to five billion, there would instantly be people who were interested.
All up, Jenny had invested 25 million, which had increased by 5 to 10 times.
A long time ago, a certain someone had told her that the two of them would set up a company for her to make more money than her father.
She had thought that he was joking back then and hadn’t taken it seriously.
She had accepted the position as Luke’s secretary. She had thought that at most, she would run things for over ten years and build a company worth more than a hundred million. That would be enough for her to escape her weak position in front of her father.
But based on the development of the phone company, the shares she owned might be worth as much as her father’s entire fortune by the end of this year.
And it had been less than a year since Luke had made that joke.
Thus, even though more and more people were starting to show her respect, what she wanted the most was Luke’s approval.
Every time she talked to Luke, she would quickly calm down.
Luke was three years younger than her and held almost 80% of t.i.tanium Phone Company shares. His a.s.sets were worth over a billion, but he acted the same as ever and wasn’t arrogant.
Jenny only had several hundred million; she couldn’t be arrogant.
Luke had also given her a rough idea of the company’s future development.
In ten years, t.i.tanium Phone Company and the software company that was already in the works would become a huge corporation that covered entertainment, social media, and daily applications.
And she would be the founder of this corporation.
When Jenny thought about how Luke had only wanted to sell a navigation app at first, but he couldn’t sell the software, and so decided to make his own phone to use it on, she wanted to laugh.
It was just like how people who wanted to open restaurants couldn’t order eggs, so they decided to open their own chicken farms. Before the restaurants could make money, the chicken farms had already made a fortune.
Fortunately, this was a good outcome. Selling phones and the OS was more interesting than selling navigation software.
Of course, Jenny would never forget how indifferent Luke was when he first took out his phone and the various software apps.
She knew that Luke had more ideas and skills, but he didn’t plan on making money with them yet.
She was very interested in these ideas and skills. If she followed Luke, she could do a lot of interesting things.
Thus, she was very aware of her position.
She was just the manager of the company, while Luke was the foundation of the company’s existence.
Luke could still succeed without her.
Without Luke, she wouldn’t have been able to achieve such great success so easily.
He was capable, but he didn’t blindly pretend to know everything. There was no better partner than him.
She would follow him all the way to see even more of the world’s beautiful views.
…
The hottest time of the year rolled around in September, and Luke and Selina slowed down with their cases.
After the earthquake and the Elsworth incident, L.A.’s prisons were already full to bursting.
It was sunny in Los Angeles every day. They would get home at four in the afternoon, and a certain lover of sunbaths could bask for an hour in the backyard.
Luke, on the other hand, holed up in his workshop as usual, and was so busy he practically didn’t see the light of day. Occasionally, he would sigh at his tiring life.
At that moment, Luke finally got the mystical police academy graduation certificate, and was officially a qualified police officer.
Dustin immediately arranged for Luke and Selina to take the detective test.
But Gold Nugget No. 2 was on a national tour with Claire, and Selina wasn’t confident in taking the exam.
Luke simply smiled without saying anything, and gave her a pair of gla.s.ses.
After Luke showed her how to work them, the girl was instantly rea.s.sured. Lifting her head and sticking her chest out, she dragged Luke to the exam.