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　　山姆·泽尔是芝加哥房地产巨亨，被誉为房产界的“山姆大叔。拥有50亿美元资本净值的泽尔，在2008年《福布斯》“美国富豪400强”排行榜上名列第68位。^[2]

　　泽尔是股本集团投资（Equity Group Investments）的主席，该集团是私人股本和公开发行公司的混合体，包括了住宅地产（Equity Residential），一家业内领先的住宅公司；生活时尚置业（Equity LifeStyle Properties），一家由300个度假和工厂预制住房协会的公司；资产信托公司（Capital Trust），一家商业房地产金融公司。

　　泽尔爱抽烟，爱骑自行车，爱穿开领衬衫。早在上学期间，他就颇有投机意识，曾经购买了一批《花花公子》杂志，然后高价转手卖给小伙伴们。上世纪 60年代中期，正在读大学，之后成为密歇根大学法学院学生的泽尔已开始在安娜堡（Ann Arbor）购入房产。之后他与同父异母的兄弟罗伯特·劳瑞合伙，直至1990年劳瑞48岁时死于癌症，两人共同建立起了一个地产王国。

Samuel "Sam" Zell (born September 1941) is a U.S.-born billionaire and real estate entrepreneur. He is co-founder and Chairperson|Chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm. With an estimated net worth of US$5 billion, he is ranked as the 68th richest American by Forbes^[2]In April 2007, Zell completed a leveraged buyout of the Tribune Company, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. He is also the owner of the Chicago Cubs.

Early life

Zell was born in Chicago in 1941 to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland who fled the country just before the Nazi invasion in 1939. Shortly after moving from Seattle to Chicago, Zell's father Bernard changed the family name from Zielonka to Zell.^[3] He received his Bachelor of Arts (1963) from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He also received his Juris Doctor|JD (1966) from the University of Michigan Law School.^[4]

Real estate business

Zell, with Robert Lurie went on to found the Equity Group Investments, LLC, which spawned three real estate public companies, including: Equity Residential, the largest apartment owner in the United States; Equity Office Properties, the largest office owner in the country; and Manufactured Home Communities, a mobile home company. In addition, Zell has created a number of public and private companies. He also controls SZ Investments LLC as his investment arm.

Zell is also Chairman of Capital Trust Inc., a finance and investment management company focused on the commercial real estate industry, and Anixter International, the world's largest distributor of communication products and electrical and electronic wire and cable.

Recently, the Blackstone Group completed its purchase of Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 billion,^[5] and sold off many of the portfolio's properties for record amounts.^[6]

Media investments

Between 1992 and 1999, Zell's Chillmark fund owned Jacor Communications, Inc., a successful radio broadcast group that included a television station. The company was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 1999.

On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced their acceptance of Zell's offer to buy the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and other media assets. On December 20, 2007, Zell took the company private, and the following day he became the Chairman and CEO. He plans to sell the Chicago Cubs, and sell the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Los Angeles Times

In a sharply critical June 2008 opinion piece for the Washington Post entitled, "The L.A. Times' Human Wrecking Ball", veteran Los Angeles-based editor and columnist Harold Meyerson took Zell to task for "taking bean counting to a whole new level", asserting that "he's well on his way to... destroying the L.A. Times." Comparing Zell to James McNamara, who was sentenced to life in prison for the notorious 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing (which killed 21 employees), Meyerson concluded his article by opining that "Life in San Quentin sounds about right" for Zell.^[7]

Zell is known for using "salty" language in the newsroom.^[8] In February 2008, the website LA Observed reprinted an internal memo that said:

"Last week you may have encountered some colorful uses of the lexicon from Sam Zell that we are not used to hearing at the Times... But of course we still have the same expectations at the Times of what is correct in the workplace. It's not good judgment to use profane or hostile language and we can't tolerate that... In short, nothing changes; the fundamental rules of decorum and decency apply... Sam is a force of a nature; the rest of us are bound by the normal conventions of society."^[9]

Philanthropy

A long-time supporter of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he helped fund the Real Estate Department at Wharton, as well as the Zell-Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan. Zell also endowed the Zell Center for Risk Research at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School. Zell has also donated significantly to his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Zell, according to The Forward^[10], is also "a major donor to causes in the Middle East. His donations include a $3.1 million donation to the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and separate donations to the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a free market oriented Israeli think tank founded by Daniel Doron. In the United States, he has given major gifts to such Jewish causes as the American Jewish Committee and a Chicago Jewish day school named after his father."

Political contributions

Zell has donated to both United States Republican Party and United States Democratic Party candidates — with more money going to the former — as well as to lobbying groups representing the real estate industry. According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Public Integrity, "Zell has given more than $100,000 in political contributions since the 1998 election cycle, most of it supporting Republican causes."^[11]

Controversies

Zell was recently implicated in the complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. According to the Associated Press, Zell "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue." The issue in question was the firing of certain editorial staff members in exchange for tax breaks on the sale of Wrigley Field.^[12] Zell has yet to state that he would not have fired the editor mentioned in the federal complaint in exchange for the tax break in question.

In 2008, Zell announced a plan to place the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field up for sale separately in order to maximize profits. He also announced he would consider selling naming rights to Wrigley Field for anyone willing to put up the money. These announcements have been widely unpopular in Chicago^[13][14] and a poll taken by the Chicago Sun-Times showed that 53% of 2,000 people who voted said they would no longer attend Cubs games if the field was renamed.^[15]

In April 2008, Zell made a controversial comment about the subprime mortgage crisis at a conference in Los Angeles, where he stated, "this country needs a cleansing. We need to clean out all those people who never should have been in houses in the first place."

In June 2008, Politicker.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe took Sam Zell to task for the changes he has brought to both the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune Company. But since Zell has taken over Tribune and the media industry has experienced an unprecedented decline, no one else has put an idea on the table to reinvent a sustainable newspaper product.^[16]

　　山姆·泽尔（Sam Zell）是一位将资产建立在业界周期之上的地产投资大师，他最近指出，金融市场的现时动荡实则是市场对新一轮经济过剩的感性回应，而非真正的信贷危机。

　　在沃顿商学院的一次由地产学教授彼得·利曼（Peter Linneman）主持，涉及广泛的讲座中，这位公司总部位于芝加哥的地产投资人谈到，现在的市场正受美国次级信贷市场的问题所困扰，但是，人们仍有足够的资金周转，这与其它地产萧条时期现金流极度紧缩的情况大有不同。

　　“我们并非真正处于大家所说的‘信贷危机’之中，我认为大家陷入的是一场‘信心危机’”泽尔说道，他是沃顿商学院塞缪尔和罗伯特劳瑞房地产研究中心的赞助者。“我的观点是，两个月前存在的流动性过剩问题，现在仍然存在。虽然风险溢价不同了，但实际的流动性量仍未改变。”

　　泽尔还提到，经济的滑坡应在预料之中：“过去的三年里，人们表现得过分轻率。他们想要什么便买什么，并且毫不考虑自己的购买能力并以此为荣。我想这些人现在都该懊丧无比，而且吓得不知如何是好了吧。”

　　根据泽尔的观点，资金充沛的私人股本投资公司有能力从“荒谬”的杠杆收购中得利，并高价收购公开发行的房产公司。泽尔将这桩买卖称为“教父的要约”，因为没有一家公开发行公司能拒绝这一诱人的要求。果不其然，今年二月，泽尔以390亿美元的高价将他的旗舰公司，办公物业公司（Equity Office Products ，简称EOP)，连同其资产组合中的540幢高级办公楼出售给了黒石集团（Blackstone Group）。这是当时为止所完成的数额最大的一笔私营股权收购案例了。泽尔预测市场会马上稳定下来，尽管与近几年相比，市场会加倍进行风险规避，更少地利用杠杆。“今天，无人能再次复制黒石的交易了。”

　　卖掉了EOP之后，泽尔又将其注意力转到了另一桩主要的收购上。八月，论坛公司（Tribune Co.）的股东们同意了泽尔开出的82亿美元收购报价，该公司拥有《芝加哥论坛报》，《洛杉矶时报》和其它的媒体公司。这次的收购泽尔将芝加哥小熊棒球队（Chicago Cubs）也收入囊中，但他说自己计划将棒球队转售。论坛公司的交易正在规定的审查之中，有望于年底完成整个交易过程。

　　对这桩交易，泽尔并未直接提及，但他却谈到了自己作为逆势投资人的名声。他回忆起第一次亲历市场的转机。上世纪七十年代，房地产市场被普遍看好且长势逼人。泽尔无法预料在房地产市场未发育完整时，到底多少供应量才能满足市场的缺口。因此他不再做新的交易，转而建立了一家专注于萧条地产市场的公司。“那时所有人都在批评说：‘山姆，你不知就里。’这些话陪伴了我的整个职业生涯。甚至在2007年我购买报业时，也是人人都在议论，‘从前说你不明白，现在你可是真糊涂了。’”

　　泽尔是股本集团投资（Equity Group Investments）的主席，该集团是私人股本和公开发行公司的混合体，包括了住宅地产（Equity Residential），一家业内领先的住宅公司；生活时尚置业（Equity LifeStyle Properties），一家由300个度假和工厂预制住房协会的公司；和资产信托公司（Capital Trust），一家商业房地产金融公司。泽尔告诉沃顿的听众们，他还未从经济学的第一堂课中“缓过神来”，那时他正在学供求关系。“我想告诉你们的是，无论身处何种行业—地产业、驳船业、轨道列车业—都是市场的供应和需求决定一切。”

　　上世纪六十年代中期，正在读大学，之后成为密歇根大学法学院学生的泽尔已开始在安阿伯（Ann Arbor）购入房产。之后他与同父异母的兄弟罗伯特劳瑞（Robert Lurie）合伙，直至1990年劳瑞48岁时死于癌症，两人共同建立起了一个地产王国。

　　在 1973年市场崩盘之后，泽尔用了之后的三年时间收购了近30亿资产的地产资本，其中大部分只需一美元首付。通过承担出租人在未来的管理中可能损失的费用，泽尔以此向他们换取股权。他有能力维系这些物业，直至他们回到—甚至超过—先前购买时的价值。“事实证明，我们因次而大赚了一笔，”。从80年开始，房地产市场又一次显现出强劲的承租涨势，发展前景豁然明朗。泽尔说：“我的投资理念就是建立起资产组合，然后就会有人来购买，这些人指的就是日本人。”

　　当被利曼提问他为何没有成为地产开发商时，这位满脸胡茬，嗓音沉厚的地产大亨回答道，地产开发对于他来说风险太大。“从事开发，需要有种楼宇情结，”泽尔说道。“至少半数的回报率来自你亲眼见着大楼逐渐高耸的心理成就感。我却毫不受这痛苦的情结所困。”

　　考虑到市场可能无法消化巨额投资，泽尔和劳瑞在1980年花了大半年时间将他们的投资进行多元化，开始关注其他的一些行业。他们的策略与地产业曾使用的如出一辙，在人们忽视供求规则的地方寻找机会。“我们觉得如果自己是合格的地产人，那也算得上是出色的商人。”泽尔说道。

　　房产专业人士具备了娴熟的交易技能，他补充道，但他们往往缺少运用策略的远见卓识。“如果要请人代理进行交易协商，我一定会找一名房产商人而非公司经理人。 ”泽尔说道。但另一方面，地产人缺乏“在转角寻找机遇”的能力，在他们看来，面前的永远是笔直的道路。正因此，我们的行业缺乏周期性，直至今日都显得反复无常且大起大落。”

　　上世纪九十年代初，美国的大多数商业房产公司都被掌控于大约50至60家大型私人投资公司手中。然而，市场又一次出现了逆转，这些公司纷纷陷入严重的信贷紧缩，大量资产被了结抵押，银行发生挤兑，贷款市场几近崩溃。泽尔解释道，出路就是向公共市场要钱，通过一种之前鲜为人知的金融工具，即房地产投资信托基金（Real Estate Investment Trust）进行，简称REIT。据泽尔说，REIT从此成为商业房产市场的长期驱动力，直至过去一年左右，通过类似他的这次黑石公司的交易，私人股本的收购重将许多股份购回到私人手中。

　　黑石公司和沃纳多房地产信托公司（Vornado Realty Trust）为争夺EOP公司进行了三周的要价战，泽尔描述了他在其间所使用的策略。沃纳多作为美国第二大房地产投资信托基金，向泽尔的公司提供了一套现金与股票相混组合的收购报价。泽尔说道，收购的关键在于为EOP和其母公司准备一笔7亿2千万美金的“分手费”，另外他还补充，股票的交易可能需要花费数月完成，并且事后他也认识到，股票的交割可能因之后八月形成的市场震荡而出现严重问题。

　　利曼注意到，现在泽尔的股份分散在房产和其他一些行业中。“其他”之一就是美国艾利斯特公司（Anixter International），该公司是以太网路线市场的垄断性企业。至于地产这方面，泽尔说他通过对国际股本集团（Equity Group International）的注资，关注着新兴市场的发展。

　　1999年，泽尔决定，在美国使用的得心应手的REIT理念应该也能被复制到世界的其他地方。现在他控制了墨西哥和巴西的主要房屋制造商并且正将其触角伸及印度、中国和埃及。墨西哥公司设在瓜达拉哈拉城的办事处豪迈斯（Homex）为了满足墨西哥顾客的要求，每天24小时，每周7天办公。“这些地方的美妙之处在于它们无穷无尽的市场需求，”泽尔说道。“如果回到教科书中的经济学导论一章，我们会发现这些国家都有大量未能满足的住房需求。它们的人口增加了但随之而来的住房问题却未能解决。”

　　泽尔也承认，在收购这个问题上他并不总是正确。他讲述了1992年收购加州的卡特霍利霍尔连锁店（Carter Hawley Hale stores）的经历。他的公司对此进行了调查分析，认为如果该公司低价甩卖的话，这家拥有79所门店的连锁店至少应值80％的收购价。收购后没多久，留给泽尔的却是市场的快速萧条和南加州的一场大地震。95年时，他决定脱身出局，将连锁店卖给了该店的竞争对手，联邦百货商店（Federated Department Stores）。卖了多少钱？尽管泽尔在这次交易中损失了些钱，但值得欣慰的是他的公司正确计算了转手卖出的价格。联邦公司支付了泽尔收购价的80％。“ 投资虽然失败了，但过程却是成功的。我们正确估计了风险并做好准备，事实上我们也确实承担了风险。”

　　利曼注意到泽尔有个著名的别号叫“坟墓舞者”（the grave dancer）。泽尔说，这个词来自于他曾撰写的一篇文章的标题，该文阐述了市场经历过热投资带来的必然经济泡沫后，他怎样从萧条房产市场得利的策略。泽尔说这篇文章展示了他是怎样“在他人错误的尸骸上起舞的”。

　　 然而，泽尔也在该文的最后指出：“最靠近坟墓的舞者，也要时时注意自己不跌入死亡的深渊。”

• 这个人怎么搞垮论坛公司(图)
• Sam Zell Biography
• The Zell Center for Risk Research at the Kellogg School of Management
• The Zell Lurie Institute: The University of Michigan
• The Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton
• The Zell entrepreneurship program at the Interdisciplinary Center, in Israel
• Detailed list of Zell's federal campaign contributions since 1979
• Zell's Year End Gift
• "What the Zell?" Chronicles one of the most-quotable men in journalism
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/30/useconomy.usa