Vigoro Corp

IMC Global Inc. said Monday it agreed to acquire Vigoro Corp. for nearly $1.2 billion in stock, in a merger that would create one of the world's biggest fertilizer suppliers. IMC, based in Northbrook, Ill., produces phosphates and other fertilizer ingredients at six plants in Florida and Louisiana. It also mines potash, an ingredient in fertilizers and soaps, in Saskatchewan, Canada, and New Mexico.

IMC Global Inc. said Monday it agreed to acquire Vigoro Corp. for nearly $1.2 billion in stock, in a merger that would create one of the world's biggest fertilizer suppliers. IMC, based in Northbrook, Ill., produces phosphates and other fertilizer ingredients at six plants in Florida and Louisiana. It also mines potash, an ingredient in fertilizers and soaps, in Saskatchewan, Canada, and New Mexico.

Real estate tycoon Sam Zell is turning to Wall Street for cash to pay off a series of loans about to come due. Zell, known as "the grave dancer" for his ability to buy failing companies cheap and turn them around quickly, is seeking federal approval to sell a major stake in his mobile-home parks business to the public and to issue mortgage-backed securities. John Tuccillo, chief economist for the Washington-based National Assn.

The little pamphlet came with the intriguing title: "The Spirituality of Work." This being a topic seldom mentioned on employee bulletin boards or in those periodic flyers distributed by management, an interview seemed in order. Particularly when its author identifies himself not as a New Age guru but, to the contrary, an everyman sort of Catholic with some age-old ideas and the ear of more than a few of Chicago's business executives. "Our premise," says William L.