保时捷的甜蜜与哀愁

    没有什么比生日派对更让人开心了。保时捷（Porsche）正在庆祝它的传奇跑车保时捷911面世50周年，人们的注意力也暂时从保时捷与对冲基金的官司中转移了出来。

    1963年，保时捷在法兰克福车展上发布了第一款911跑车。这款车型也是保时捷356的后续车型。[有些人可能还记得356跑车的高速版本，它也是美国影星简•方达在1978年的电影《回家》（Coming Home）中送给她丈夫的礼物。】1963年的时候，没人能想到911跑车后来会成为时尚和极致工艺的缩影。它甚至成了一个身份的象征，是医生、律师、投行家等成功人士和富人的专宠。

    911系列中最高档的一款称做保时捷GT3，起价大约13万美元。如果选择9,000美元的陶瓷刹车盘，价格可能还会再高上2到3万美元。除了它的性能和工艺之外，很多人认为这款车的外型也非常匀称，比例协调，姿态优美。《人车志》（Car and Driver ）杂志的前主编萨巴•瑟热曾说过：“它的外观几十年来一脉相承，与其它汽车相比，911跑车展示了鲜明的品牌化设计的好处。”

    由于4年前保时捷谋求收购大众汽车公司（Volkswagen）的交易半路流产，现在全球各大对冲基金都在德国起诉保时捷控股公司，要求该公司支付总价50多亿美元的罚金。现在保时捷反倒被大众收购了，但是关于谁必须为保时捷收购大众汽车失败买单的争论却尘嚣尘上。保时捷公司的前任财务总监和CEO由于涉嫌操纵市场而双双被告上法庭，要求追究他们的刑事责任。

    毫无疑问，很多起诉保时捷和大众汽车的对冲基金经理自己就开着保时捷911。他们要么开着它上班，要么周末开着它度假。他们在法庭上争论说，保时捷没有尽到义务，向公众披露它当初收购大众汽车股票的原因。

    而大众汽车通过出人意料的手段收购保时捷，实现了建立高中低档结合的全系列汽车品牌的战略，为它带来了效益和规模经济。大众汽车宣布，它计划在2018年前成为全球第一大汽车品牌。《人车志》前主编瑟热说：“尽管保时捷的规模不算很大，但是它填补了大众的中高档品牌奥迪（Audi）与最高档品牌兰博基尼（Lamborghini）和布加迪（Bugatti）之间的空白。更重要的是，保时捷突出了大众汽车的德国血统。”

    如果大众汽车的监事会主席费迪南•皮耶希决定今年为保时捷911点燃生日蜡烛的话，他肯定会得到一种特殊的满足感。皮耶希也是保时捷家族的一员，而且从年轻时起就在保时捷公司工作。由于与表兄弟不睦，皮耶希出走保时捷，一开始他去了奥迪，后来又去了大众。现在，由他的先人费迪南德•保时捷于1931年创立的保时捷公司终于被他收入囊中，同样任他发号施令的，还有一个更大的汽车帝国。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    Nothing like a birthday party to cheer things up. Porsche is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its legendary 911 sports car, providing a brief and fleeting distraction from mounting litigation by hedge funds.

    In 1963 the German automaker introduced the first 911 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the successor to Porsche's 356. (Some may remember the Speedster version of the 356 as Jane Fonda's gift to her husband in the 1978 film Coming Home.) No one in 1963 could have guessed how much the 911 would come to epitomize elite style and engineering. The 911 grew into a status symbol -- eventually a cliché -- for doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers of a certain mindset and pocketbook.

    The top-of-the-line version of the 911, which Porsche calls GT3, starts at about $130,000 for the base model. Popular options such as the $9,000 ceramic brakes can add another $20,000 or $30,000 to the sticker. Besides the 911's performance and engineering, the design of the exterior appeared to many to be balanced, proportional, poised. "With its consistent look over the decades, the 911 has demonstrated, more than any other car, the benefit of clear, brand-specific design," said CsabaCsere, former editor-in-chief of Car and Driver magazine.

    Hedge funds worldwide are suing Porsche SE in Germany, seeking more than $5 billion over the automaker's abortive bid four years ago to take over Volkswagen AG. VW turned the tables and now controls Porsche -- but the legal wrangling over who must pay for the fiasco is mounting. The former chief financial officer and CEO of Porsche are facing criminal charges for market manipulation.

    No doubt a few of the same hedge fund managers suing Porsche -- VW, actually, now that the German automaker owns the sports car company -- are driving 911s, either to their Wall Street offices or on the weekends. They're arguing in court that Porsche wasn't clear, as was its obligation, to disclose why it was buying VW stock.

    For VW, gaining control of Porsche through unexpected means played into its overall strategy of assembling an array of automotive brands, which create efficiencies and economies of scale. VW has declared it intends to be the No. 1 global automaker in terms of units sold by 2018. "While Porsche's volume is not large," Csere said, "it fills the niche between Audi and VW's exotic Lamborghini and Bugatti brands. Moreover, Porsche emphasizes the German heritage of the parent company."

    Ferdinand Piëch, the chairman of VW's supervisory board, can gain special satisfaction if he decides to light birthday candles for the 911 this year. He is a member of the Porsche family and worked at the company as a young man. Tension with his cousins led to his exit and a career first at Audi, then at VW. Now Piech wields the ultimate power over what became the company his ancestor Ferdinand Porsche started in 1931 -- and a much larger automotive empire as well.