EBay spinning off PayPal as separate company

PayPal will become a separate company after separating from eBay. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) EBay is spinning off its online payment service PayPal as a separate company.

The move, which has long been urged by some Wall Street analysts, was announced early Tuesday. It is expected to take place in the second half of 2015.

"This is the best path for delivering sustainable shareholder value," said the company's statement.

EBay (EBAY, Tech30) also announced a new executive team for both companies, with current CEO John Donahoe and chief financial officer Bob Swan planning to leave the company after the split.

Devin Wenig, currently president of eBay Marketplaces, will become CEO of the new eBay. The company also announced the appointment of Dan Schulman, an executive of American Express (AXP), to be the president of the PayPal unit until the split, and to be CEO of the independent PayPal.

3 Reasons United Continental Holdings Inc's Stock Could Rise

There are three basic things investors in any stock want to see: more revenue, lower costs, and more cash returned to shareholders. In the case of United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL  ) , shareholders are spoiled with all three. Each of these figures has been going in the right direction recently, and if the company's forecasts are accurate, all three will improve and could lead to an even higher share price.

Mile-high revenue
For the second quarter, United Continental reported a revenue increase of 3.3% to $10.3 billion. Passenger revenue leaped 3.6% to $9.0 million. Per passenger ancillary revenue jumped 7.9% to $21. United's Chief Revenue Officer Jim Compton stated, "We are beginning to see the benefits of the changes we're implementing to our network and revenue management processes. We have more work to do, however, and will continue to make the appropriate adjustments to accelerate our revenue growth."

One of the key ways United is working to expand revenue is from installing lighter slimline seats. That's a fancy way of saying squeezing more bodies into the same size flying tube. You thought fights are already tight enough? They're in the process of getting tighter, but just adding a few extra passengers into a flight means more revenue with not much additional cost. At the same time, United plans to expand ancillary revenue even further with more service options.

Two billion reasons wrapped into one
Cost savings can really make a huge difference to the bottom line. All things being equal, every $1 a company can eliminate in cost is $1 of pre-tax profit. United has implemented a program called "Project Quality." This is an all-hands-on-deck across all employees goal of eliminating $2 billion in annual costs by the year 2017.

Source:  United Continental Holdings

United expects to save half a billion this year, so it still has a ways to go. The target cuts sought are $1 billion in fuel through various means, $100 million in maintenance, $500 million in productivity, $100 million in distribution, $150 million in sourcing, and $150 million in other ways. Better fuel efficient planes while ditching the gas guzzlers is the first step in this process.

Analysts certainly seem to be believers. For example for the fiscal year ending December 2015, they expect on average a 30% increase in EPS on only a 3.7% increase in revenue. All those cost savings are expected to blow up the bottom line in a fashion that shows it is much more lucrative than simply selling more tickets. If the plans and hopes turn to reality, the stock could appreciate accordingly.

Shareholders have a rewards program of their own
United announced in July a $1 billion buyback program to be completed in three years. $1 billion is a perfectly even round number so dare I say the internal plans may be more aggressive with an earlier completion and a new one to be announced sooner? In any event, it's a lot of cash.

Consider that the market cap of United is just under $18 billion at the time of this writing. That's nearly a 6% return on this initiative alone. Likewise, unless the share price shoots up first, it will retire nearly 6% of the shares outstanding, giving an automatic boost to all EPS figures.

Personally I like buybacks because of the message of confidence they tend to convey from management which brings a potentially higher P/E multiple as a company performs. CEO Jeffrey Smiesk was more direct about this message in the earnings conference call. He stated, "[The buyback announcement is] perhaps the clearest demonstration of our confidence and our ability to achieve the goals of [our] long-term plan." It sounds like he doesn't expect UAL's results disappoint the Street.

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25 Motivational Quotes From Self-Made Billionaires

Great quotes help motivate me to keep learning on my journey of self-improvement. One of my favorite sources of quotes to turn to is from self-made billionaires, as they have spent their lives working through failure, and have come out on top. They often have wisdom to impart.

For those days when you need an extra pick-me-up, here are the best motivational quotes from some of the greatest entrepreneurs in history.

1. "People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents." -- Andrew Carnegie

2. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." -- Walt Disney

3. "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- J. K. Rowling

4. "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." -- Henry Ford

5. "You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over." -- Richard Branson

6. "When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again." -- Steve Jobs

7. "You can do so much in 10 minutes time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into 10-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity." -- Ingvar Kamprad

8. "The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work." -- Oprah Winfrey

9. "I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying." -- Jeff Bezos

10. "If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it." -- Elon Musk

11. "The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." -- Mark Zuckerberg

12. "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." -- John D. Rockefeller

13. "Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable." -- Coco Chanel

14. "You can learn from everybody." -- Sam Walton

15. "When I saw that screen light up that day in the Merrill Lynch offices, I lost any residual doubt that Bloomberg could make it. We had picked just the right project. It was big enough to be useful, small enough to be possible. Start with a small piece, fulfill one goal at a time, on time. Do it with all things in life. Sit down and learn to read one-syllable words. If you try to read Chaucer in elementary school, you'll never accomplish anything. You can't jump to the end game right away, in computers, politics, love, or any other aspect of life." -- Mike Bloomberg

16. "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." -- Henry Ford

17. "All my life people have said that I wasn't going to make it... You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win." -- Ted Turner

18. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." -- Steve Jobs

19. "Making mistakes is the privilege of the active -- of those who can correct their mistakes and put them right." -- Ingvar Kamprad

20. "Risk more than others think safe. Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible. Care more than others think wise." -- Howard Schultz

21. "High expectations are the key to everything." -- Sam Walton

22. "I'm always afraid of failing. It's great motivation to work harder." -- Mark Cuban

23. "Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see farther." -- J.P. Morgan

24. "What I know for sure is that if you want to have success, you can't make success your goal. The key is not to worry about being successful, but to instead work toward being significant – and the success will naturally follow." -- Oprah Winfrey

25. "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -- Henry Ford

Foolish takeaway
Life is a journey, not a sprint. Those who succeed spend their lives continuously learning habits, skills, and practices to effectively reach their goals, and live a successful life. Learning how to successfully invest for the long term is one of the best educations anyone could ever give you.

Top dividend stocks for the next decade
The smartest investors know that dividend stocks simply crush their non-dividend paying counterparts over the long term. That's beyond dispute. They also know that a well-constructed dividend portfolio creates wealth steadily, while still allowing you to sleep like a baby. Knowing how valuable such a portfolio might be, our top analysts put together a report on a group of high-yielding stocks that should be in any income investor's portfolio. To see our free report on these stocks, just click here.

Morgan Stanley: Can’t Get Much Better Than This

Everyone, including Barron’s, loves Morgan Stanley (MS). Make that almost everyone, as JPMorgan cut its rating on the investment bank today.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

JPMorgan Cazenove’s Kian Abouhossein and team explain why they downgraded Morgan Stanley to Neutral from Overweight:

We applauded Morgan Stanley for its [fixed income, currencies and commodities, or] FICC restructuring announcement in 2012 as the right step towards improving ROE. However, with [wealth management] earnings growing, we believe the pressure has lessened for management to shrink FICC further, with the business in our estimates consuming c.45% of group RWAs and not generating CoE returns in 2016E. In addition, Morgan Stanley now appears expensive, trading at 11.3x P/E, 1.1x P/NAV for RONAV 9.9% in 2016E which is a material premium to European IBs on average 7.9x 2016E P/E. We do not see Morgan Stanley reaching its 10%+ ROE target (on average common equity) in our current estimates and is offering no upside to our $34 Dec-15 SOP based PT. Hence we downgrade Morgan Stanley to Neutral from OW and see better value in European IBs, in particular UBS (UBS) trading at 9.0x P/E and 1.5x P/NAV for RONAV 16.4% in 2016E.

Shares of Morgan Stanley have fallen 0.6% to $34.81 at 12:11 p.m. today, while UBS has gained 1.6% to $17.58.

4 Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Professional traders running mutual funds and hedge funds don't just look at a stock's price moves; they also track big changes in volume activity. Often when above-average volume moves into an equity, it precedes a large spike in volatility.

Read More: 10 Stocks Billionaire John Paulson Loves in 2014




Major moves in volume can signal unusual activity, such as insider buying or selling -- or buying or selling by "superinvestors."



Unusual volume can also be a major signal that hedge funds and momentum traders are piling into a stock ahead of a catalyst. These types of traders like to get in well before a large spike, so it's always a smart move to monitor unusual volume. That said, remember to combine trend and price action with unusual volume. Put them all together to help you decipher the next big trend for any stock.



With that in mind, let's take a look at several stocks rising on unusual volume recently.

Read More: 5 Toxic Stocks to Sell Now

Autohome

Autohome (ATHM) operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People's Republic of China. This stock closed up 1.7% to $44.65 in Friday's trading session.

Friday's Volume: 3.62 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 926,373

Volume % Change: 389%

From a technical perspective, ATHM bounced modestly higher here right above some near-term support at $42.50 with heavy upside volume. This stock has been downtrending badly for the last month, with shares dropping from its high of $57.92 to its recent low of $41.31. During that downtrend, shares of ATHM have been consistently making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of ATHM are now starting to reverse that trend right above its 50-day moving average and the stock could be preparing for a rebound to the upside.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ATHM as long as it's trending above some near-term support at $42.50 or above its 50-day at $41.17 and then once it sustains a move or close above Friday's intraday high of $45.94 with volume that hits near or above 926,373 shares. If that move starts soon, then ATHM will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $49.37 to $51.88.

Read More: 5 Short-Squeeze Stocks That Could Pop in September

Shenandoah Telecommunications

Shenandoah Telecommunications (SHEN), a diversified telecommunications holding company, provides both regulated and unregulated telecommunications services to end-user customers and other telecommunications providers in Virginia, West Virginia, central Pennsylvania, and western Maryland. This stock closed up 7% to $29.55 in Friday's trading session.

Friday's Volume: 207,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 64,397

Volume % Change: 220%

From a technical perspective, SHEN ripped sharply higher here back above both its 200-day moving average at $27.46 and its 50-day moving average of $28.38 with above-average volume. This strong spike to the upside on Friday also pushed shares of SHEN into breakout territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $28.64 to $29. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if SHEN manages to take out Friday's intraday high of $29.55 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in SHEN as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $28.38 or above its 200-day at $27.46 and then once it sustains a move or close above $29.55 with volume that hits near or above 64,397 shares. If that move gets started soon, then SHEN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $31.10 to $31.50 or even $33 to its 52-week high at $33.99.

Read More: 5 Stocks With Big Insider Buying

Intrepid Potash

Intrepid Potash (IPI), together with its subsidiaries, produces and markets muriate of potash and langbeinite in the U.S. This stock closed up 5.1% at $16.13 in Friday's trading session.

Friday's Volume: 2.05 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 816,136

Volume % Change: 193%

From a technical perspective, IPI ripped sharply higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $15.24 and back above its 200-day moving average of $15.53 with strong upside volume flows. This sharp push higher on Friday also pushed shares of IPI into breakout territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance at $15.97. Market players should now look for a continuation move higher in the short-term if IPI manages to clear Friday's intraday high of $16.25 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in IPI as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $15.24 and then once it sustains a move or close above $16.24 with volume that's near or above 816,136 shares. If that move materializes soon, then IPI will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $17 to its 52-week high at $17.64. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give IPI a chance to make a run at $20.

Read More: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks

Noodles & Company

Noodles & Company (NDLS) develops and operates fast casual restaurants in the U.S. This stock closed up 3.7% at $19.57 in Friday's trading session.

Friday's Volume: 860,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 458,178

Volume % Change: 110%

From a technical perspective, NDLS trended notably higher here right above some near-term support at $18 with above-average volume. This stock recently gapped down sharply lower from around $25 to $19.54 with heavy downside volume. Following that move, shares of NDLS continued to trend lower with the stock hitting a new 52-week low of $17.15. That said, shares of NDLS have now started to reverse its downtrend with shares trading above higher and tagging an intraday high of $20.13 on Friday. Market players should now look for a continuation move to the upside in the short-term if NDLS manages to clear Friday's intraday high of $20.13 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in NDLS as long as it's trending above some near-term support at $18 and then once it sustains a move or close above Friday's intraday high of $20.13 with volume that's near or above 458,178 shares. If that move begins soon, then NDLS will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance level at $22.58. Any high-volume move above $22.58 will then give NDLS a chance to re-fill some of its previous gap-down-day zone from August that started near $26.

Read More: 5 Breakout Stocks Under $10 Set to Soar

To see more stocks rising on unusual volume, check out the Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.

RELATED LINKS:

>>It's Not Too Late to Buy Apple -- but Hurry Up

>>4 Under-$10 Stocks to Trade for Breakouts

>>3 Huge Stocks Everyone Is Talking About

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including

CNBC.com and Forbes.com. You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.

Kroger Positioning Itself to Challenge Superstores

When I was growing up, my mother used to buy the family groceries at Kroger (KR) – sometimes. Kroger was one of several grocery stores in my hometown, and Mom didn't go to the same place for supplies each week. Kroger was one of them.

Kroger was an ordinary-sized grocery store then; since those days, my perception of Kroger, like many other people's perception, has been that it is strictly a grocery store – and, at that time, it was. But Kroger has expanded quite a bit. In addition to buying food at many Kroger outlets, consumers today can get all sorts of other things like appliances, furniture, clothes and gas, at Kroger stores. And, as is sometimes the case in these large stores, consumers can find fast food – burgers, tacos or pizza – and coffee vendors as well.

Some consumers may have shopped at a Kroger-owned store without knowing what it was. Today, Cincinnati-based Kroger owns more than two dozen retailers operating under different names and in sizes ranging from Wal-Mart-like (WMT) superstores to small corner convenience stores.

Kroger isn't in a position to challenge Wal-Mart yet, although that is what it appears to be positioning itself for. Currently, it is muscling its way past other contenders like Costco (COST) and Target (TGT).

As the chart shows, Kroger's revenue is competitive with Costco's and higher than Target's – but still far below Wal-Mart's. When that is taken into consideration, Kroger stock is a bargain. Investors can buy a share of Kroger stock for less than a share in any of the other three.

Kroger has been the recipient of quite a bit of favorable attention here at GuruFocus lately. Earlier this month, Omar Venerio wrote that investors should consider putting their money in Kroger. A couple of weeks earlier, Jaggom wrote that Kroger's acquisition of Harris Teeter (HTSI) in January was a "smart move."

More than a month ago, Suravi Thacker wrote that investors would not regret putting their money into Kroger: "The company has been posting great results each quarter and its recently reported first quarter was not an exception."

Currently 2.00/512345 Rating: 2.0/5 (1 vote)

Voters:

Subscribe via Email Subscribe RSS Comments Dianagjones - 23 hours ago

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CEO Envisions Bitcoin Stock System to "Wipe Out" Wall Street

Could a Bitcoin stock trading system be the cure for the many transgressions of Wall Street?

Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne thinks so.

Last month he created a wiki page on the Internet to solicit help in creating a decentralized, purely digital stock trading system that would use Bitcoin's blockchain - the mechanism that records and verifies all the transactions - as its foundation.

"You would have an instant, frictionless market, while having the added benefit of wiping out a whole parasitic class of society - that is, the whole financial industry," Byrne told Wired in February.

Besides the Big Banks, Byrne told CoinDesk the system would bypass the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), which provides clearing and settlement services to the U.S. capital markets.

"It's a corrupt organization that shows [the] influence of organized crime," Byrne said.

It's no surprise Byrne would seize upon a Bitcoin stock system as a weapon - this is not the first time he's targeted the powers of Wall Street...

A Legacy of Fighting Wall Street

Back in 2005, Byrne became notorious for his accusations that Wall Street was using naked short selling techniques to manipulate the prices of his and other companies' stock for their own gain. In naked short selling, a trader doesn't borrow shares to sell on the market - they simply sell shares they don't have.

In 2007 Byrne filed a $3.48 billion lawsuit against a dozen of Wall Street's biggest players, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB). That suit is still pending.

Fast forward to last year, when Byrne became intrigued with Bitcoin. Unlike many in the financial community, the unconventional CEO immediately saw great potential in the digital currency.

Overstock.com started accepting Bitcoin as payment in January - the first major retailer to do so.

But he also recognized that the underlying Bitcoin technology could serve purposes beyond mere payments.

A Bitcoin stock trading system would take his fight against Wall Street to an entirely different level.

And for those who are sick and tired of Wall Street's dangerous games - the high-frequency trading that skims money away from retail investors, the thinly disguised manipulation of stock and commodities prices, the insane risks taken in a gambit for quick profits - a system that relegates these bad actors to the ash heap sounds very tempting indeed.

Byrne has made some promising first steps in making this Bitcoin stock trading system a reality, but he also faces some daunting challenges...

A Bitcoin Stock Trading System Would Be Great - but Can It Be Done?

Byrne is the first to admit that his Bitcoin stock trading project faces an uphill battle, but that's why he created the wiki page - to enlist the help of the Bitcoin community, lawyers, and financial experts to explore solutions.

"Instead of asking some law firm to spend $1 million to try and figure it out, we're turning it over to the world and say 'Hey you folks who want to see this happen, come and help figure out some of these questions on our wiki'," Byrne told CoinDesk.

The mechanics would be the easy part. For example, a company that wanted to sell 100 million shares of crypto-stock could buy a single Bitcoin and split it into the smallest slices possible - a Satoshi, or 0.00000001 of one bitcoin. Each slice would correspond to a share, and would have all the necessary ownership data embedded in it.

Such crypto-shares could then be traded over the Bitcoin network between individuals without any need for brokers or other Wall Street interference. The network would even facilitate shareholder voting.

And because all the transactions would be recorded in Bitcoin's public ledger - the blockchain - all trading would be completely transparent, making such Wall Street creations as "dark pools" impossible.

Less clear is whether the trades could be conducted smoothly and in a timely fashion, given that the Bitcoin network can take several minutes to verify a transaction. And liquidity could also be a problem.

But the biggest threat to a Bitcoin stock trading system is government regulators, particularly the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC Is Mum on the Bitcoin Stock System - So Far

Always spoiling for a fight, Byrne actually seems to be looking forward to SEC scrutiny of his wiki page, which is entitled "How to issue a cryptosecurity."

"We're open-sourcing how to create an alternative to the current corrupt institutions that dominate Wall Street," Byrne told CoinDesk. "If their lap dog, the SEC, subpoenas me, I intend to open-source their subpoena and open-source my response. And when the DOJ indicts me, I'll post that online and we'll open-source our response to that."

Byrne is even mulling whether to offer some Overstock.com crypto-shares himself, but knows that means he will need to notify the SEC.

So far the SEC and other regulators have been silent on the concept of cryptosecurities - let's face it, regulators are still trying to wrap their heads around the idea of a digital currency - but SEC obstinance could nip any Bitcoin stock trading system in the bud.

That and Wall Street's opposition to the idea could make the whole thing a non-starter, even if there's enthusiasm among retail traders.

While Byrne may not succeed in wiping out Wall Street, a Bitcoin stock trading system could find a role as a supplement to the traditional exchanges, or possibly as a venue for penny stock trading.

Regardless, Byrne is committed to the fight no matter how quixotic it might seem.

"I wish to provide the world a way to give Wall Street some payback," Byrne told Wired, "in the form of a massive hot fudge high colonic that would be a cryptosecurity."

For more Bitcoin news and insights, follow me on Twitter @DavidGZeiler.

UP NEXT: A Bitcoin stock system is just one way the blockchain could be used. But those working on these exciting new applications for the blockchain need an easier way to access it. That's where this tiny San Francisco startup comes in. Welcome to Bitcoin 2.0...

Related Articles:

Wired: Overstock's Radical Plan to Reinvent the Stock Market With Bitcoin CoinDesk: Patrick Byrne: Overstock Exploring Blockchain-Based Public Stock Offering Wired: Meet Patrick Byrne: Bitcoin Messiah, CEO of Overstock, Scourge of Wall Street Overstock.com: How to Issue a Cybersecurity

It's official: Nevada gets Tesla's Gigafactory

  Elon Musk: Big risks 'make me unhappy' NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Nevada has vanquished its foes in the hunt for Tesla's multi-billion dollar "Gigafactory" battery plant.

"It's a great day in Nevada, and it's a great day for Nevada," said Governor Brian Sandoval at a press conference to announce the facility.

The deal was announced Thursday after months of wrangling between California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. It will cost the state $1.25 billion in tax breaks and other incentives, Sandoval said. It is expected to generate $100 billion in "economic impact" over the next 20 years.

The Governor also said about 6,500 jobs will be created directly at the plant, but as many as 22,500 jobs will be created in the state because of the project. The state's economic development office estimates that the factory will add $1.9 billion to state and local coffers over the next two decades, with a quarter of it going to K-12 education.

Tesla (TSLA)'s massive factory, which could cost an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion is aimed at easing the path to a cheaper electric car, the Model 3. The key is reducing the cost to build more of the lithium-ion batteries that its cars use.

Tesla hopes the Model 3 will cost between $30,000 to $40,000. The flagship Model S costs nearly $70,000 and Tesla's upcoming crossover, the Model X, will cost about that much. Panasonic (PCRFF) will partner with Tesla on the Gigafactory, which broke ground in July.

The lion's share of Tesla's incentives are in taxes it won't have to pay, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal. That means $725 million in sales tax breaks over 20! years and $332 million in property tax breaks over 10 years, with most of the rest coming from tax credits.

The battery factory will also get $8 million in discounted electricity rates, the paper said. Tesla will be allowed to sell its cars directly in Nevada without a franchise agreement, which has been a sticking point in other states.

"The Gigafactory is an important step in advancing the cause of sustainable transportation and will enable the mass production of compelling electric vehicles for decades to come," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a statement.