Mediaboss Marketing

Mr. Shkreli taunted his critics on television (dismissing Bernie Sanders on Fox Business Network: I dont think he understands pharmaceuticals at all), on Twitter (Haters, please tell me about the latest in apicomplexa genetic drift) and on hourslong YouTube live streams (combing his hair, playing chess and chatting with a female student at Hunter College High School).

During a live stream, Mr. Shkreli discussed rap, high school and a friend of his who is in jail.

Responding to the public outrage, Express Scripts, the largest prescription drug manager in the United States, said that it would back the production of an alternative to the $750-a-pill Daraprim that would cost only $1 a pill.

In December 2015, it was revealed that Mr. Shkreli was the buyer of a one-of-a-kind Wu Tang Clan album that was auctioned for $2 million. When RZA, a co-founder of the hip-hop group, criticized the sale, Mr. Shkreli responded with an expletive and told the rapper to show me some respect.

Nine days later, Mr. Shkreli was charged with securities fraud linked to his first pharmaceutical company, Retrophin. The government accuses Mr. Shkreli of using the company to pay back investors in MSB Capital, a hedge fund he founded. The investigation began long before his notoriety. He resigned from Turing shortly after being charged.

Those who know him describe Mr. Shkreli as charismatic and intelligent. Months before he became a drug industry pariah, Mr. Shkreli made a $1 million donation to Hunter College High School, the prestigious Upper East Side school that he attended before going to work on Wall Street at 17. Some alumni later pushed for the gift to be returned.

Martin is the smartest guy in the room at all times, someone who worked with him on Wall Street told The Times. One early investor said that if you give him a science textbook on chemistry, hed give it back to you in nine months and hed have it memorized.

Despite his penchant to speak his mind, Mr. Shkreli was notably quiet in a federal court in Brooklyn in February 2016 (in response to a question: yes, judge). The same was the case during a heated congressional hearing on drug prices (he smirked and took the Fifth Amendment). But after testifying, he tweeted: Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.

Mr. Shkreli invoked his Fifth Amendment rights while Congress peppered him with questions about his company's increasing drug prices.

Mr. Shkreli eventually shared the spotlight with other drug industry executives portrayed as villains. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, a company that also bought patents and raised drug prices, saw its stock plummet. And Mylan, the maker of the lifesaving allergy injecting device EpiPen, was criticized for raising the price for a two-pen set to more than $600.

The outspoken Mr. Shkreli was finally forced into silence this year, but only on Twitter. He was kicked off the social media platform after harassing a female journalist, but he maintains his online presence on Facebook and YouTube.

His lead defense lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, appeared to channel some of President Trumps advisers when he said that his clients messages on social media should not be taken at face value. When people tweet, they dont always mean what they say, Mr. Brafman said.

Excerpt from:
Scenes From Martin Shkreli's Journey to Federal Court - New York Times

Cheryl Cook's Social Scene

Dell EMC partner marketing chief Cheryl Cook is keeping her foot firmly on the accelerator as she brings new tools and strategies designed to make partners' marketing efforts simple and seamless to a growing number of solution providers.

Cook launched Dell EMC's Partner Marketing Institute little more than a month ago, and so far it has attracted nearly 2,000 solution providers. The turnkey site gives partners access to a full suite of marketing resources and training and provides tools to seamlessly make their marketing efforts an extension of Dell EMC's. With that, Cook is building plans to help partners maximize the effectiveness of their MDF dollars and go-to-market strategies.

Ultimately, Dell EMC wants partner marketing to become self-service for solution providers who can turn to the vendor for collateral materials and resources to carry out unified, comprehensive social media marketing campaigns.

Having Dell EMC's social media acumen encapsulated for easy digestion by partners means those partners will come to rely less on Dell EMC for lead generation, instead becoming self-sufficient while using a standard, Dell EMC-sourced approach.

What follows is an edited excerpt from CRN's conversation with Cook.

Read more:
CRN Exclusive: Dell EMC's Cook On Partner Marketing Momentum, Social Media Traction And New MDF Initiatives - CRN

In Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogans hunt for domestic enemies, even the invisible hand of the marketplace is getting cuffed.

With elections just over two years away and his approval ratings dipping below 50 percent, Erdogan isnt leaving his political fate to the vagariesof the free market. Instead, hes risking his countrys future stability by flooding the economy with credit to engineer short-term growth, analysts say.

"Turkish economic policy is all about politicsand politics is all about Erdogan and his AKP party winning decisively in 2019, saidNigel Rendellof Medley GlobalAdvisors in London. Nothing else matters.

Since last years foiled coup,which triggered emergency rule, Turkey has expanded state guarantees to rush about $50 billion of lira loans to almost 300,000 businesseswith little transparency over how the money is spent. The government has also pooled about $200 billion of assets into a wealth fund. Thats so it can borrow against its stakes in companies likeTurkish Airlines andTurk Telekomto build popular big-ticket infrastructure that will further swell a budget deficit thats already projected to be the highest since 2010.

Officials have even proposed letting banks securitize their total loan book of $515 billion to finance more lira lending, though theyve already dispersed 50 percent more than all deposits in the national currency, the most of any major economy. While a 22 percent surge in credit since the failed putsch is helping fuel 5 percent headline growth, which Erdogan has trumpeted as a vindication of his policies, its also threatening to prolong double-digit inflation.

The immediate downside of the credit boom has been an increase in the price of money. To attract savings from a population thats more reluctant than most to park cash, lenders have raised deposit rates to as high as 15 percent, which means they have to charge even more for lending to be profitable.

Melis MetinerofHSBC Holdings Plcsays Erdogan and his allies are trying to bypass the structural, supply-side constraints of the economy, including low savings rates, poor education results and skill shortagesall while shielding inefficient industries with some of the most protectionist policies in emerging markets. This neglect, together with the debt buildup, risks making Turkey even more vulnerable to external shocks after the elections, she said.

The governments priority appears to be to keep domestic activity as strong as possible for as long as possible by leveraging the public- and banking-sector balance sheets, the London-based economist said in a research note.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

Finance Minister Naci Agbal said in an interview in March that most of the governments recent measures related to taxes and credit are one-time in nature and their impact on the budget will disappear by 2020.

As long as the budget gap is at manageable and controllable levels, a certain amount of increase will not hurt the perception of fiscal discipline, he said.

The Credit Guarantee Fund, which the government created in 1991 but drastically expanded last November, lets commercial banks share some of their lending risks with the treasury, which covers 7 percent of any lossesenough for lenders to approve many clients with borderline creditworthiness.

Metiner and other economists have criticized the fund for creating a debt spiral, adding another element of fragility to the economy. They argue that while it allows companiesto restructure debt and receive fresh loans with maturities of up to 10 years, it does nothing to improve credit quality and encourages excessive borrowing that can require even more loans to service.

Business owners like Alper Akmaner,who makes and distributes the Cire Aseptine brand of Swiss beauty products, say they wouldve had difficulties surviving, let alone expanding, without the guarantee program.

The Anthemis Cosmetics chairman, like legions of other entrepreneurs, imports raw materials for dollars and was thus ravaged by the liras 21 percent plunge last year. Turkey is particularly sensitive to U.S. currency swings because its current account deficit is set to be the biggest relative to output of the 20 largest economies this year and its imports are priced mostly in greenbacks.

When I started my company, banks avoided me, Akmaner said in an interview in Istanbul, where he employs 14 people. Now theyre calling me.

Akmaner, who borrowed 750,000 liras ($213,000) from two different banks under the mechanism, said the huge cash injection has provided undeniable relief for thousands of firms. It should be extended to achieve sustainable results, otherwise, in terms of growth, itll be a one-off and then well be back where we started, he said.

Deputy Prime MinisterNurettin Caniklisaid so far the fund has backed about 180 billion liras of credit out of a maximum of 250 billion liras, after which the program will be wound down. Thats the main reason officials are considering allowing banks to bundle their loans and market them to investors, saidTrieu Pham, a credit analyst atMUFG Securitiesin London.

That could reduce the upward pressure on deposit rates and free up some breathing room for further loan growth, Pham said.

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For Erdogan, whos presided over the firing and jailing of civil servants by the tens of thousands since a rogue army faction tried to topple him, prolonging the credit spree is a double-edge sword.Hes seeking a popular mandate for greater powers after pushing through a disputed referendumin April on movingfrom a parliamentary system to an executive presidency. Elections for both offices are scheduled for November 2019, but he can call either one early, a decision that may depend on the health of the economy.

The risk is to face an over-leveraged economy right after elections,said Inan Demir,Nomura International Plcs London-based economist. An external financing shock could lead to accelerating inflation, higher unemployment and stagnant activity right after the transition to the executive presidency."

Even supporters of the debt and restructuring frenzy whove benefitedfrom the governments largesse are worried it may have gone too far.

This isnt sustainable, saidMehmet Erdogan, chairman of Sezon Pirinc, an agriculture producer based in Istanbul that filed for bankruptcy protection two years ago. We cant get anywhere by borrowing and restructuring, said Erdogan, who isnt related to the president.

Maybe not, but dont expectthe Turkish leader to stop trying, according to Atilla Yesilada, an adviser to GlobalSource Partners, a consultancy in Istanbul.

Voters are extremely uncomfortable with the purges and clampdowns, Yesilada said. Erdogan can only hold the system together by pumping in enough money to keep growth high, so hes not going to hit the brakes.

With assistance fromConstantine Courcoulas.

More:
Why Erdogan Is Flooding Turkey's Economy With Credit - Bloomberg - Bloomberg

Thu Jun 22, 2017 | 11:31 AM EDT

By Daren Butler and Tulay Karadeniz | ISTANBUL/ANKARA

ISTANBUL/ANKARA Turkey sent its first ship carrying food aid to Qatar and dispatched a small contingent of soldiers and armored vehicles there on Thursday, while President Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Saudi Arabia's leaders on calming tension in the region.

Turkey has backed Qatar after Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab states cut all economic and diplomatic ties this month, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, a charge it denies.

But Ankara, which has long tried to play the role of regional mediator, is also wary of upsetting its other allies, including Saudi Arabia. Turkey fast-tracked legislation on June 7 to allow more troops to be deployed to a military base in Qatar that houses Turkish soldiers under an agreement signed in 2014.

Five armored vehicles and 23 military personnel arrived in Doha on Thursday as part of the new deployment plans, Turkey's armed forces said in a statement, adding that the move was in the framework of legal measures regarding military training and cooperation between the two countries.

Some 88 Turkish soldiers were already in Qatar, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.

After the deployment, a joint exercise by Turkish and Qatari forces was expected following the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday, Hurriyet said. The number of Turkish soldiers sent to the Gulf state could eventually reach 1,000, it said, adding that an air force contingent was also envisaged.

The first Turkish ship carrying some 4,000 tonnes of dry food supplies, fruit and vegetables set off from a port in western Turkey's Izmir province at dawn on Thursday, state-run Anadolu news agency said. It cited the head of the logistics company delivering the supplies as saying it was expected to arrive in Doha in around 10 days.

Though Turkey has sent 105 cargo planes of supplies, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Wednesday that it was not sustainable to maintain aid supplies through an air lift.

REGIONAL TIES

In supporting Qatar, Turkey was not trying to threaten anyone, Erdogan's spokesman said.

"We don't want any sort of tension with any Gulf state. We would also not want any of them to be in a row with each other. This has been our approach to this crisis since the beginning," Ibrahim Kalin told reporters on Thursday.

"In other words, if two of your friends, two neighbors are disagreeing with each other and if there is something you can do about this, it is perfectly natural to go into action."

Sources from Erdogan's office said the president spoke by phone overnight with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and new crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, congratulating the latter on his promotion.

"Agreement was reached on increasing efforts toward ending tension in the region related to Qatar," the sources said in a statement regarding the phone calls on Thursday. Erdogan and King Salman agreed to hold face-to-face talks at the G20 meeting in Hamburg next month, the sources said.

King Salman made his son next in line to the throne on Wednesday, handing the 31-year-old sweeping powers as the kingdom seeks a radical overhaul of its oil-dependent economy and faces mounting tensions with regional rival Iran.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan and Richard Balmforth)

Read the rest here:
Turkey's Erdogan, Saudi leaders discuss efforts to end Qatar tension: sources - Reuters

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is reportedly finding it difficult to secure booking for a suitable venue to address thousands of his supporters on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg, according to local media.

So far, a number of arenas located in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, which could potentially cater to the Turkish leaders needs, have for various reasons, reportedly politely refused to host Erdogan on July 9.

The Dortmund Westfalenhallen is not available, said a spokesman for the event center on Wednesday, as the hall has already been booked on that day, apparently for construction work for another event, Ruhr Nachrichten reports.

The Konig-Pilsner-Arena in Oberhausen also denied a request for Erdogans speaking engagement, according to Bild. The spokesman for the venue reportedly said the arena will undergo renovation and reconstruction work during the summer break.

The Dusseldorf ISS Dome also used a similar excuse to deny Erdogan a public space, Focus online reports.

The arena is not available because of the renovation work that takes place annually in the summer weeks, said spokeswoman Julia Kaballo.

Erdogan made his last appearance before his supporters in Germany in May 2015. Whether or not he will have another chance to extend the courtesy to some of the roughly 4 million Turkish citizens residing in Germany remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Germanys Federal Foreign Office said the Turkish Embassy in Berlin was unable to confirm plans for Erdogans attendance at the G20 summit which will take place on July 7-8 in Hamburg.

So far, we have received no formal request from the Turkish side, the spokesman pointed out. We have no information about this.

The public speaking venues alleged hesitation to host Erdogan seems to fall in line with the rapidly worsening German-Turkish relations.

While German citizens and journalists like Deniz Yucel are still in prison in Turkey, the federal government cannot roll the red carpet for Turkish despotic Erdogan in Germany, Sevim Dagdelen from the Left Party was quoted as saying by Die Welt.

In early March, authorities in two German states withdrew permission for a number of rallies in support of a Turkish referendum which sought to expand Erdogans presidential powers. The decision was taken amid growing public outrage over Turkeys arrest of a Turkish-German Die Welt reporter, and Ankaras crackdown on political opponents following a failed coup attempt in July last year.

In retaliation, Erdogan lashed out at Germany, comparing its policy to Nazi measures. Erdogans Nazi reference sparked outrage in Germany, where the issue of the countrys notorious Nazi past and the crimes of Hitlers regime remain highly sensitive.

Continue reading here:
Erdogan struggles to find rally venue for G20 visit to Germany - euronews