How it started
History
On August 18, 1910, at the Seneca Hotel in Rochester, New York at a Retail Delivery Association meeting, thirteen American florists led by John Valentine, a Denver lawyer and floral company owner agreed to serve each other's out-of-town customers by exchanging orders via telegraph. This group was called Florists' Telegraph Delivery. In 1914, the company adapted Mercury by sixteenth-century Flemish sculptor Giambologna for its Mercury Man corporate logo, to emphasize the speed of delivery. In 1965, it began offering international orders, and took the name of Florists' Transworld Delivery.
Going public
In 1994, FTD began a process of demutualization, acquiring control of the business, and ownership of its assets.
On December 19, 1994, a precursor to the FTD Corporation, a private, for-profit company Perry Capital, acquired FTD, which then divided FTD into two organizations: FTD Incorporated, a for profit corporation, and FTD Association, a non-profit trade association.
FTD Incorporated retained FTD's businesses, including the Mercury Network and the clearinghouse, and controlled FTD Association's rules, regulations, and bylaws. The FTD Association retained member education, advocacy and quality assurance.
From Wikipedia’s article on Florists' Transworld Delivery, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3