NATIONAL

Citrix Systems buys XenSource; shares of VMware soaring

Citrix Systems Inc. is buying three-year-old startup XenSource Inc. for $500 million, marking the second big deal this week to highlight the bustling market for software that makes computers run more efficiently.

The cash-and-stock acquisition followed the stock market debut of VMware Inc., XenSource's much-larger rival, whose shares have nearly doubled from Monday's initial public offering price of $29.

VMware shares climbed $6.71, to $57.71 Wednesday, leaving the previously little-known company with a market value of about $22 billion.

Only four other publicly traded software companies - Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., SAP AG and Adobe Systems Inc. - are worth more.

BOOK EXCERPTS ON IPHONE The publishing world is hooking up to the iPhone. HarperCollins announced Wednesday that it had set up a special link, mobile.harpercollins.com, that will allow browsers to view excerpts from a dozen new releases.

MACY'S EARNINGS PLUMMET Macy's Inc. said second-quarter earnings fell 77 percent to $74 million, or 16 cents a share, for the quarter ended Aug. 4, from $317 million, or 57 cents, a year earlier. Sales slipped about 2 percent to $5.89 billion from nearly $6 billion last year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast profit of 26 cents per share on revenue of $5.88 billion.

WORLD

Mexico to retain lid on tortilla prices until end of year

The Mexican government on Tuesday promised to keep the price of tortillas stable until the end of the year with a new $45 million stabilization fund.

The announcement marked the extension of a pact reached at the beginning of the year between the government and the corn and tortilla industry to put a ceiling of 77 cents per 2.2 pounds on the price of tortillas.

Tortilla prices in Mexico rose between 20 percent and 30 percent in January, generating protests among the poor.

LOCAL

Liberty buys stake in BORBA health line sold on QVC program

Liberty Media Corp. said it bought an equity stake in BORBA, a line of health and beauty products that began sales last year on Liberty's QVC television shopping program.

BOND SALE Xcel Energy subsidiary Public Service Company of Colorado on Wednesday announced it has sold $350 million of its 30-year first mortgage bonds with an annual interest rate of 6.25 percent.

BUFFETT SELLS Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway recently sold 68 percent of its stake in Douglas County-based Western Union, leaving it with 3.2 million shares.

Berkshire likely got the bulk of its Western Union stake when the company spun off from Greenwood Village-based First Data last year.

DRILLING FIELD AWARDS Williams Exploration and Production Co. won the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's best management practices award for its rig in Colorado's Piceance Basin that can drill and complete 22 gas wells on a single pad. BP won an award for a project in the New Mexico portion of the San Juan Basin that minimized drilling impacts to vegetation and wildlife. EnCana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc. won for improvements to its natural gas operation in Wyoming's Jonah Field.

ECONOMY

Consumer price gain smallest in 8 months

Consumer prices in the U.S. rose 0.1 percent in July, the smallest gain in eight months, as Americans paid less for gasoline and food costs moderated.

The figures, which matched economists' forecasts, give the Federal Reserve scope to reduce interest rates if the economy weakens. At the same time, there's little sign that a drop in stocks and more credit restrictions are causing growth to falter: Industrial production gained 0.3 percent in July, the Fed said Wednesday, and factory use rose.

The increase in the cost of living followed a 0.2 percent advance in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday in Washington. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, climbed 0.2 percent for a second month and were up 2.2 percent from a year earlier.

Prices this year are rising at a 4.5 percent annual rate, compared with a 4.7 percent rise in the same period in 2006.

• Fund managers are the most risk-averse in a year on concern rising defaults will hamper economic growth and sap earnings, a Merrill Lynch & Co. survey showed.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents to the poll conducted from Aug. 2 to 9 said their willingness to take on investment risks is "lower than normal," the biggest percentage since August 2006. Investors raised holdings of cash and bonds in the period, which coincided with a market sell-off that has wiped out $3.4 trillion from equities since July 20.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index has slumped 9.1 percent since reaching its 2007 high on July 19.

Debt default is the greatest danger for financial markets, according to the survey, which questioned 181 respondents who manage $599 billion.

THIS JUST IN . . .

• Centura Health appointed Peter E. Makowski as chief executive officer of St. Anthony Central Hospital.

• Whirlpool Corp., a manufacturer of home appliances, will build a 410,000-square-foot facility in the Aurora-based Majestic Commercenter to house its regional warehousing and distribution center.

• The Society of Thoracic Surgeons honored St. Joseph Hospital with its highest rating for the hospital's quality of cardiac surgery.

• The Denver Public Schools Foundation received a $50,000 grant from Piper Jaffray, an international middle market investment bank and institutional securities firm, for a science curriculum being implemented in Denver elementary schools.

• Nolte Associates Inc. named Murray McBride engineering manager and director in its Denver public works group.

• The Awwa Research Foundation, a nonprofit water research organization headquartered in Denver, named James C. Parone as director of finance and administration.

• Green: Fine Salad Co. is offering free downtown Denver delivery service for orders of $25 or more in the area bounded by Blake to Sherman and 15th and 18th streets.

• Psomas, a consulting engineering firm, added Rick Nichols as senior project manager in its Denver office.

• The Creative Alliance, a marketing, public relations and design firm based in Lafayette, has launched Kids Need Art, a mini-grant program benefiting elementary and middle school art instruction in the Boulder Valley School District.

• The Denver-based Mul-hern Group Ltd. added Kristin Sinclair as a senior designer/ drafter and Lesley Howard as a designer/drafter.

• PG Exhibits, a company specializing in three-dimensional exhibit design, added Lauren Smith as a designer in its Denver office.

• Metropolitan State College received a five-year $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition to create its Grow Your Own program for Denver Public Schools' paraprofessional employees to become English as a second language teachers.

• Ballard Spahr added Bryce H. Beecher to its Denver office as of counsel in the real estate department.

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