Starbucks brings its coffee guide to Web

Starbucks brings its coffee guide to Web

SEATTLE

Starbucks is making a longtime employee status symbol – the pocket guide it gives its baristas to help them learn the intricacies of coffee – available to customers worldwide, in the form of an app.

It’s the Seattle-based coffee giant’s latest bid to extend its coffeeshop dominion, a way to draw in new, smartphone-toting customers and keep them tightly linked to the brand.

The printed guide, dubbed the Starbucks Coffee Passport, has been given to baristas since the early 1990s. It’s a small booklet that describes the flavor and other features of the many types of coffee the company sells.

The app is Web-based, and can be accessed via a mobile phone’s browser at passport.starbucks.com.

Volkswagen shares slide after lawsuit

FRANKFURT, GERMANY

Shares in Volkswagen AG are sliding after the U.S. Justice Department sued the German automaker over emissions-cheating software fitted to diesel vehicles.

Volkswagen’s shares were 3.1 percent lower at $133.05 in Frankfurt trading Tuesday morning – easily the worst performer on the DAX index of blue chip stocks, which was 0.4 percent higher overall.

The Justice Department’s move Monday potentially exposes the company to billions in fines for clean-air violations.

Netflix extends deal with DreamWorks

Netflix’s online video service will feature more series and movies from DreamWorks Animation as part of a contract extension with the studio.

The expanded licensing agreement announced Tuesday will allow Netflix to showcase several new DreamWorks series, including “Trollhunters,” a fantasy created by acclaimed movie director Guillermo del Toro.

Netflix secured the rights to DreamWorks programming everywhere in the world but China. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Amazon: Shoppers ordered 23M items on Cyber Monday

NEW YORK

Amazon’s sellers had a strong Cyber Monday.

The largest U.S. retailer said Tuesday that customers ordered more than 23 million items from its sellers on Cyber Monday, the popular online shopping day after Thanksgiving. That was up 40 percent from the previous year.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s investments in its “Fulfillment By Amazon” service seem to be bearing fruit, with 1 billion items delivered in 2015 for businesses selling on Amazon.

Lumosity to pay $2M to settle ad case

washington

The developer of Lumosity “brain training” games will pay $2 million to settle federal allegations that it misled customers about the cognitive benefits of its online apps and programs.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday the company’s advertisements deceptively suggested that playing the games a few times a week could boost performance at work, in the classroom and even delay serious conditions such as dementia. Under the settlement, Lumos Labs must contact its customers and offer them an easy way to cancel their subscriptions.

Combined dispatches