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Flower delivery company FTD files for bankruptcy

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Flowers being delivered. Photo: Dário Oliveira/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

FTD (Nasdaq: FTD), the Illinois-based flower delivery network, yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell its North America and Latin America businesses (including ProFlowers) to Nexus Capital Management for $95 million.

Why it matters: This is really about an earlier, much-hyped deal gone bad. FTD in 2014 paid $430 million to buy ProFlowers, so it could move big into non-floral gifting and increase its share of the e-commerce consumer flowers business from 8% to 18%. But it struggled to service the merger's $120 million in debt, ultimately unable to make payments due this past weekend.

  • FTD also will sell its U.K.-based Interflora unit to The Wonderful Co. for $59.5 million and signed letters of intent to sell its Personal Creations and Shari’s Berries businesses to undisclosed buyers.

The bottom line: "The deep-rooted middleman for the florist industry traces its lineage to 1910, when it started as a network of U.S. florists who used telegraph communication to trade out-of-town orders, according to the court declaration.It operated as a not-for-profit until 1994, when it was acquired by Perry Capital." — Jeremy Hill, Bloomberg

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Small groups of protesters gathered outside fortified statehouses across the U.S. over the weekend ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Wednesday.

The big picture: Some protests attracted armed members of far-right extremist groups but there were no reports of clashes, as had been feared. The National Guard and law enforcement outnumbered demonstrators, as security was heightened around the U.S. to avoid a repeat of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, per AP.

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