6 Most Important Things in Business Today

February 23, 2018 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has started to take orders for its low-priced Model 3. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Tesla Inc. for the first time is notifying some reservation holders new to the electric-car brand that they can begin configuring and ordering their Model 3 sedan.

The milestone suggests production of the vehicle at Tesla’s assembly plant is picking up steam after a turbulent beginning in July. Previously, the Silicon Valley auto maker had limited opening orders to reservation holders who were employees or had been previous Tesla customers.

A bank will no longer handle NRA credit cards. According to Bloomberg:

The nation’s largest privately-owned bank holding company and a major car rental chain said Thursday they will stop promotions aimed at National Rifle Association members.

The Nebraska-based First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract to issue the group’s NRA Visa Card, spokesman Kevin Langin said in a statement.

Nissan has launched a self-driving taxi service. According to CNBC:

Automaker Nissan and tech firm DeNA will test out a self-driving taxi service in Japan.

Nissan said Friday it would conduct a field test of the service, called Easy Ride, on March 5, in the Minatomirai district of Yokohama, along a set route of about 4.5 kilometers.

CNBC believes one of the targets of the project is Uber.

Cybercrime has exploded, according to a security company. According to CNBC:

Cyber crime is the only criminal enterprise with a ‘help desk’

The global cost of cybercrime has now reached as much as $600 billion — about 0.8 percent of global GDP — according to a new report.

More worrying than that figure may be the massive growth from 2014, when the same analysis showed the cost was only as much as $445 billion.

A celebrity’s comments about Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) sent its stock plunging. According to CNNMoney:

Kylie Jenner is not happy about Snapchat’s new redesign.

Snap stock closed down 6% on Thursday after the reality TV star said she is no longer using the app. The plunge wiped about $1.3 billion off the company’s market value.

Jenner has been one of Snapchat’s most influential users.

Snap’s CEO got a huge pay package last year. According to CNNMoney:

Snapchat may have struggled during its first year as a public company, but you wouldn’t know it from the CEO’s pay.

Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat’s parent company, received $638 million in total compensation in 2017, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

The vast majority of that came from a one-time stock award given to Spiegel for taking his company public in March. Spiegel’s salary for 2017 was $98,078.

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