Although it was Saturday, Carmen Keith woke up very early because Eric promised to visit WM company today.
Leaving the man's embrace lightly, got dressed, and began to prepare breakfast.
In recent days, after negotiating with Paul Roland, Carmen Keith successfully bought 30% of the shares of WM Company and became a shareholder of this well-known modeling agency in New York. Eric also bought it in his own name. Another 10% of the shares.
The scale of WM is far from being comparable to industry giants such as Elite and IMG, but after years of management by Paul Rowland, the foundation is not bad. The company has more than 300 regular signing models in North America and Europe, and the profit scale in recent years is between 5 million and 7 million US dollars.
Considering that the Firefly system might help the further development of WM Company, Paul Roland agreed with Carmen Keith and Eric’s shareholding proposal almost without any hesitation, and only valued WM Company at a price-earnings ratio of 10 times. $60 million.
At a valuation of US$60 million, the price of 30% of the shares is US$18 million.
Carmen Keith now has two contracts, the endorsement fee of Victoria's Secret is 10 million US dollars for five years, and the endorsement fee of Dior's real perfume is 5 million US dollars for five years. For a model like her who has just started to emerge and has not even officially entered the Victoria's Secret runway, the two contracts are definitely generous.
However, even if the two sums of money are all in the account, minus the high taxes and brokerage fees, etc., she will get 8 million US dollars in the end.
8 million U.S. dollars obviously cannot pay for 30% of WM's shares, but she has no intention of asking Eric for help. Although 18 million U.S. dollars is not worth mentioning to him, she still negotiated with Paul Roland A contract to pay in installments.
So, after signing her name on the equity transfer letter, she felt a little more at ease in her heart. Even if he is not interested in her in the future, she can still get a support no matter it is spiritual or material. After all, it is impossible to do this career as a model for too long.
I have always felt that even if I don't get a lot of love, it is good to get a lot of money.
One cannot be too greedy.
While busy in the kitchen, a pair of arms came over behind her. She stopped what she was doing, turned her head and kissed the man, and said, "I made a ham sandwich."
Eric rested his chin on the girl's shoulder and said, "I'll try it."
So he picked up a piece of freshly cut ham and handed it over.
Eric opened his mouth and bit it, tasted it and said, "How about just eating ham?"
She curled the corner of her mouth: "Not good."
"Forget it then," the man seemed easy to talk, and kissed Carmen Kess on the cheek again, then turned and left the kitchen without disturbing her for breakfast.
After a while, she came out with a ready breakfast, and he was already sitting in the dining room reading the newspaper.
Two breakfasts, his was very rich, but she was just a fruit salad, because he was here, and he prepared an extra glass of milk for himself.
After setting up two dinner plates, she sat down opposite and watched the man put down the newspaper and started to eat. She felt at home for no reason, so she asked the man about his job in a soft voice like a little lady: "Which technology stock is the most recent?" , Did it fall very badly?"
Eric habitually took a sip of the milk at hand, nodded and smiled: "Yeah, I only have 450 billion US dollars left now. In two weeks, I lost a Bill Gates and a Warren Billionaire." Buffett."
Of course, she also knows Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and also knows that Eric's net worth has shrunk by more than 170 billion U.S. dollars in two weeks.
$170 billion is enough to buy all of Estonia, or, to be more precise, enough to buy several Estonias.
In private, I secretly felt sorry for the sudden disappearance of so much money, and imagined how to spend it if I had so much money, but I couldn't get the answer.
Like a man, she also took a sip of milk and said, "That's a lot of money, you can't spend it all in your lifetime."
Listening to the girl talking, Eric suddenly realized that she seldom called his name directly. When talking to him, she would either call him 'you' or look directly at him without using any title.
Noticing the man's eyes, she was a little puzzled: "What's wrong?"
"Found a problem," Eric said with a smile, "What should you call me?"
However, she misunderstood the meaning of the man, and her face suddenly became a little rosy. She picked and picked among the intimate words commonly used by Americans in her mind, but finally she just said: "Ai, Eric."
Eric nodded, and was about to speak, but suddenly realized that he seemed to have the same problem.
In public, Eric has become accustomed to the conversation mode of Westerners, but in private, Eric also does not like to call the names of people around him directly.
It seems that I have not fully integrated into this world after all.
Noticing that Eric shook her head lightly again in a blink of an eye, she was a little uneasy, hesitated, and then whispered: "Eric, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, I suddenly found that we are the same kind of people," Eric noticed the girl's expression, explained a sentence, and said: "Hurry up and eat, we will go to WM later."
WM's headquarters are in the East Village in Lower Manhattan.
Although it was the weekend, the company headquarters seemed to be much more lively than usual. The other partners of WM Company, who usually seldom show up, all gathered together. All the successful models were called, even those who were abroad, they all flew back in a hurry in the past few days.
Except for a few company partners and executives, no one knows what happened. Carmen Keith's stake in WM has not yet been officially announced.
Therefore, when Eric appeared in the WM company with Carmen Keith, it even caused a little confusion.
When he entered the door, he first met Karolina Kurkova and Eugenia Volodina, a few girls who had a good relationship with Carmen, and Eric took the initiative to say hello to them.
The other girls didn't understand the inside story, and they were quite reserved at first, even though they heard some rumors about Carmen Case and Eric Williams, whom the company strongly promoted, but when Eric Williams, the super It still feels a bit unbelievable that the rich man appeared in his own company.
Afterwards, seeing that Eric acted so 'friendly' in front of the girls in Carolina, he immediately boldly approached him, some who wanted to sign autographs, some who introduced themselves, and even some who took advantage of it, so the scene suddenly became chaotic. stand up.
Paul Roland 'rescued' Eric from a group of little crazy goblins. Everyone came to a conference room and ran out to drive away the probing girls. Paul Roland came back again. He said apologetically to Eric: "I'm so sorry, Mr. Williams, they didn't know you were coming today"
Eric looked helplessly at the sleeve of his shirt where a button had been pulled away, he could only smile and shake his head, and said to everyone: "It's okay, everyone sit down."
Paul Roland took the initiative to introduce several other partners and executives of WM Company to Eric, and everyone sat down together.
Carmen Keith sat down quietly next to Eric and noticed the man's loose cuffs. She felt a little funny, but she was a little worried in her heart. No matter in any way, he is a man who can attract women very much. In comparison, she didn't feel that she had any advantage to hold him back.
Paul Roland was quite excited, as long as Eric Williams could appear here, it would be a great opportunity for WM Company.
In the final analysis, the development of a model agency is the expansion of resources and contacts.
If you want to promote the models in your hands, you must have resources and contacts in the media industry. If you want to find a job for the models under the name of the company, you need contacts in the major corporate brands.
In these two aspects, regardless of any point, the firefly system is definitely a super backer.
In terms of model promotion, the media resources owned by the firefly system are even enough to support a small WM company.
In addition to Victoria's Secret, a super promotion platform that can bring brand contracts to models as long as they go on stage, Firefly's huge TV media network, Internet media network and even the associated paper media network, as long as they are given a little chance, they will Enough to make the model WM wants to feature a household name.
On the other hand, the entire Firefly system can provide WM with countless job opportunities.
Originally, I was worried that Eric would be absent-minded because WM Company was just a small shrimp compared to the Firefly system. However, after noticing Eric's expression of listening to his introduction of the company's details quite seriously, Paul Roland became Be more serious, and even drag out some company operating details that you originally wanted to hide from Eric.
Paul Roland keenly felt that in front of this young man who controlled a huge economic empire, he could gain more trust by being honest.
However, when Paul Rowland said that among the more than 300 contracted models under WM Company, more than a quarter were "illegal workers" without US work visas, and his face suddenly showed a worried expression.
Having been in this circle for so long, Carmen Kath naturally knew some industry rules, but she didn't expect that WM's problems in this area would be so serious, and even thought that she might be deceived.
Noticing the flickering eyes of the girl next to him frequently looking at him, Eric patted the girl's leg reassuringly, and said, "Do you know how many work visas the United States issues every year?"
Carmen Kess shook her head. Since she was a special trainee of WM Company, she had already obtained a work visa with the assistance of WM Company before she came to the United States. Naturally, she didn't know much about this issue, and she didn't even pay much attention to other girls in the company. situation.
"About 200,000. The United States will only issue work visas for overseas workers with a score of 200,000 points each year," Eric said, then turned to Paul Rowland and said, "Paul, is that right?"
Hearing Eric say this number, Paul Roland realized that Eric obviously had some understanding of the situation of WM Company, otherwise he would not have paid attention to the issue of American work visas for no reason.
Somewhat grateful for his voluntary confession today, Paul Roland nodded with a smile, and then took the initiative to add to Carmen Kess: "Carmen, it is indeed the case, but this is not the most important thing. The United States only issues 200,000 copies each year. Work visas. But in fact, the total number of non-permanent immigrants and even illegal immigrants without visas staying in the United States for a long time exceeds 50 million. A large part of these people need to work to support themselves. Therefore, the number of illegal workers in the United States exceeds that of the government The number of officially issued jobs is more than 200 times. Moreover, the federal government has acquiesced to this fact, and there will be no trouble. Most modeling agencies in the industry, even Elite, are in the same situation as us.”
After listening to Paul Roland's explanation, Carmen Keith looked at Eric again, and she didn't feel relieved until the man nodded in agreement.
Illegal labor is indeed a big problem in American society, and has even formed a stable existence that is acquiesced by the US government.
Compared with the expensive local labor costs, illegal labor will not add to the burden on the already heavy social welfare system in the United States, but can also provide the United States with a large amount of cheap labor. Many small businesses in the United States use a large number of illegal workers. As long as there are no problems, no one will ask them at all.
Even, if the federal government really wants to get serious about the issue of illegal labor, it may even cause a lack of sufficient labor in many industries, which in turn will cause a series of chain social problems.
The modeling industry happens to be an industry where the phenomenon of illegal labor is relatively concentrated.
Compared with those overseas talents with high academic qualifications, it is even more difficult for girls with good skins to apply for a visa. What's more, most of the girls are not old enough for them to get a formal visa. work visa.
Therefore, many models start their careers in the United States with tourist visas. It is very easy to obtain such short-term travel visas among Western countries. It's just that every three months you have to return to your own country and renew your visa. Even if the immigration department finds out that it is tricky, it will often turn a blind eye.
Although the shareholding of WM Company is only the most inconspicuous investment in the huge industry under Eric's name, Eric is still very cautious to have people conduct a detailed investigation on the situation of WM Company to ensure that the company does not What can go wrong.
Since the use of illegal labor is an unspoken rule in the industry, Eric didn't pay much attention to it. He has always believed in the principle that when water is clear, there will be no fish. Even if this matter is taken out by someone, it will not actually affect him in any way.
After discussing the operation of WM Company, everyone began to turn the topic to the future development of this company.
Talent agency companies, under normal circumstances, often have two paths to choose from if they want to reach the peak.
The two companies in the industry, Elite and IMG, happen to be the ultimate manifestation of these two roads.