Floral giant FTD completed its acquisition of the floral and gifting business of Liberty Interactive unit Provide Commerce in a deal that will give Liberty a 35% interest in FTD.

Provide Commerce is now a wholly owned subsidiary of FTD. The two companies first announced the deal in July. As part of the transaction, FTD issued 10.2 million shares of its common stock and $144.7 million in cash to Liberty Interactive As of the Dec. 31 closing, FTD has approximately 29.2 million shares outstanding, with Liberty Interactive owning approximately 35% of FTD shares outstanding.

FTD’s management team will remain in place, with Robert Apatoff continuing as CEO and Robert Berglass continuing as chairman.

“We welcome the Provide Commerce team to the FTD family and look forward to bringing together Provide Commerce’s complementary collection of respected and highly recognizable e-commerce brands with ours. We will create one of the most compelling selections of floral and gifting products in the marketplace today, with greater convenience and choice for our customers,” Apatoff said in a statement. “Together, we will expand the breadth of our brands and pursue opportunities to further diversify our revenue streams. We will also look to open up additional avenues for growth and innovation, all with a goal of creating incremental value for FTD stockholders over time.”

In connection with the closing of the transaction, the FTD board expands from seven to 11 directors, with Liberty Interactive selecting four new members – former KPMG managing partner Candace Duncan; former Charter Communications EVP of programming and Hamilton Media principal Sue Ann Hamilton; Liberty Interactive vice president, corporate development Robin Pringle; and Liberty Media senior vice president and chief financial officer Chris Shean.

“We are excited to become the largest shareholder in FTD,” Liberty Interactive CEO Greg Maffei said in a statement. “Rob and his management team have built an impressive business and with the addition of the complementary businesses of Provide Commerce we are confident they will drive even greater value.”

Liberty Interactive took steps toward the ultimate spin-off of its QVC shopping channel into a separate tracking stock Friday, agreeing to move its digital commerce assets into a separate entity Liberty Ventures.

According to Liberty Interactive, digital assets worth about $1.5 billion -- Bodybuiding.com, Backcountry.com. CommerceHub, Evite, Provide Commerce and The Right Start – and $1 billion in cash were attributed to Liberty Ventures. In return Liberty Interactive shareholders will receive 67.67 million shares of Liberty Ventures common stock (0.14 shares of Liberty Ventures stock for each Liberty Interactive share they own). As a result, Liberty Interactive, which includes QVC and Liberty’s interest in rival shopping channel HSN, will change its name to QVC Group.

"We are excited to introduce the QVC Group which focuses on our leadership position in video commerce, enables a cleaner comparable analysis and provides for more targeted share repurchase and equity incentives," said Liberty Interactive CEO Greg Maffei in a statement. "The Liberty Ventures Group is projected to have over $2.7 billion in cash by year end which we can invest in a wide set of opportunities in TMT, including digital commerce."

In addition Liberty Interactive, currently traded on the NASDAQ Exchange under the symbol "LINTA," has applied to NASDAQ to change its symbol to "QVCA." The company said the effective date of the symbol change will be announced separately.

Liberty Interactive first announced plans to spin off the digtal assets and QVC last October.

Those plans were put on temporary hold after the company sold the flower and gifting portion of Provide Commerce to floral giant FTD in exchange for a 35% interest in the combined company.

Liberty Interactive said it will spin off its TripAdvisor online travel site to shareholders on Aug. 21.

The spin was originally part of a larger plan to spin off its QVC home shopping network and its digital commerce properties into two separate tracking stocks – QVC Group and Liberty Digital Commerce.  After those assets were spun off, Liberty Interactive had planned to spin TripAdvisor into a separate company – called TripAdvisor Holdings – as well. But although the QVC and Liberty Digital Commerce plans are on hold, the TripAdvisor deal is going forward.

Liberty Interactive said in late July that in light of its deal to sell the floral and gifting business of its Provide Commerce business to FTD – in turn acquiring a 35% interest in the combined company – it is “reevaluating the optimal structure and best alignment of the Liberty Digital Commerce group assets. As a result, the timing of the transition to the QVC Group has been delayed.”

In the TripAdvisor spin-off, Liberty will distribute one share of TripAdvisor Holdings Series A and Series B common stock for each share of Liberty Ventures common stock held. However, because NASDAQ has established Aug. 28 as the ex-dividend date of the distribution, and as a result of related "due bill" trading procedures, persons acquiring shares of Liberty Ventures common stock in the market through Aug. 27 will still receive shares of TripAdvisor Holdings common stock in the distribution. Liberty expects that the TripAdvisor Holdings Series A and Series B common stock will begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbols "LTRPA" and "LTRPB" beginning on Aug. 28. Following the Spin-off, TripAdvisor Holdings will hold Liberty's 22% economic and 57% voting interest in TripAdvisor, Inc., its BuySeasons business, corporate level cash and cash equivalents of $50 million and $400 million in debt.

John Malone’s Liberty Interactive engineered a deal Wednesday to sell the floral and gifting business of its e-commerce unit Provide Commerce to FTD that will give Liberty a 35% stake in the combined company, but will put its plans to split into two tracking stocks on hold.

According to the deal, Liberty will receive 10.2 million shares of FTD common stock (about 35% of shares outstanding) and $121 million in cash. In return Liberty will contribute its floral and gifting e-commerce brands ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries and Personal Creations. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

But the combination will delay Liberty Interactive plans to split into two separate tracking stocks –  QVC Group to house its interests in home shopping channels QVC and HSN, Inc., and Liberty Digital Commerce for its e-commerce businesses like Provide Commerce and Bodybuilding.com. That deal was expected to be completed sometime this year but in a statement, Liberty Interactive said while it expects to continue with plans for the QVC tracker, the FTD transaction is putting plans for Liberty Digital Commerce on hold.

“In light of the pending Provide Commerce transaction, and other factors, Liberty is reevaluating the optimal structure and best alignment of the Liberty Digital Commerce Group assets,” the company said in a statement.” As a result, the timing of the transition to the QVC Group has been delayed.”

The combined FTD/Provide Commerce will have more than $600 million in annual revenue and the addition of the Provide Commerce brands will enable FTD to provide greater support to its member florists by expanding their resources and helping them create new programs and services.

FTD provides floral, gift and related products and services to consumers, retail florists, and other retail locations primarily in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland. The business uses the highly-recognized FTD and Interflora brands, both supported by the iconic Mercury Man logo that is displayed in nearly 40,000 floral shops in 150 countries. FTD’s portfolio of brands also includes Flying Flowers, Flowers Direct, and Drake Algar in the U.K.

“This transaction provides the opportunity to create significant value for our stockholders and offers immediate benefits for consumers and our premier network of member florists, said FTD CEO Robert Apatoff in a statement. “The combination of these businesses will expand the breadth of our brands, provide opportunities to further diversify our revenue streams and open up additional avenues for growth and innovation.”

Moelis & Company is serving as financial advisor to FTD and Jones Day is acting as legal counsel. Baker Botts L.L.P. and Cooley LLP are acting as legal counsel for Liberty and Provide Commerce, respectively

FTD shares soared 14% ($4.31 per share) to $33.85 in early trading Wednesday. Liberty Interactive shares were down 1% (30 cents) to $28.23 per share.

“We are excited to become the largest shareholder in the complementary businesses of Provide Commerce and FTD,” said Liberty CEO Greg Maffei in a statement. “FTD has an extensive florist network while Provide Commerce has a proven ability to source their flowers directly from top growers. The combined company will be able to offer comprehensive and unique gifting services in the U.S. and around the world.”