The story
Founded by Frederick W. Smith in 1971, in Little Rock.1
Foundation and early history
In 1971, the company was founded in Little Rock, Arkansas, as Federal Express Corporation by Frederick W. Smith, a graduate of Yale University. He drew up the company's concept in a term paper at Yale, in which he called for a system specifically designed for urgent deliveries. While his professor did not think much of the idea, Smith pressed on. He began formal operations in 1973, when he moved operations to Memphis. Smith said he chose Memphis International Airport for being near the mean population center of the country and for its placid weather.
The company grew rapidly, and by 1983 had a billion dollars in revenue, a rarity for a startup company that had never taken part in mergers or acquisitions in its first decade. It expanded to Europe and Asia in 1984. In 1988, it acquired one of its major competitors, Flying Tiger Line, creating the largest full-service cargo airline in the world. In 1994, Federal Express shortened its name to "FedEx" for marketing purposes, officially adopting a nickname that had been used for years.
Reorganization and Caliber acquisition
On October 2, 1997, FedEx reorganized as a holding company, FDX Corporation, a Delaware corporation. The new holding company began operations in January 1998, with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express. With the purchase of Caliber, FedEx started offering other services besides express shipping. Caliber subsidiaries included RPS, a small-package ground service; Roberts Express, an expedited shipping provider; Viking Freight, a regional, less-than-truckload freight carrier serving the Western United States; Caribbean Transportation Services, a provider of airfreight forwarding between the United States and the Caribbean; and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology, providers of logistics and technology services. FDX Corporation was founded to oversee all of the operations of those companies and its original air division, Federal Express.
In January 2000, FDX Corporation changed its name to FedEx Corporation and re-branded all of its subsidiaries. Federal Express became FedEx Express, RPS became FedEx Ground, Roberts Express became FedEx Custom Critical, and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology were combined to comprise FedEx Global Logistics. A new subsidiary, called FedEx Corporate Services, was formed to centralize the sales, marketing, and customer service for all of the subsidiaries. In February 2000, FedEx acquired Tower Group International, an international logistics company. FedEx also acquired WorldTariff, a customs duty and tax information company; TowerGroup and WorldTariff were re-branded to form FedEx Trade Networks.
21st century
FedEx Corp. acquired privately held Kinko's, Inc. in February 2004 and re-branded it FedEx Kinko's. The acquisition was made to expand FedEx's retail access to the general public. After the acquisition, all FedEx Kinko's locations offered only FedEx shipping. In June 2008, FedEx announced that they would be dropping the Kinko's name from their ship centers; FedEx Kinko's would now be called FedEx Office. In September 2004, FedEx acquired Parcel Direct, a parcel consolidator, and re-branded it FedEx SmartPost.
In April 2015, FedEx acquired its rival firm TNT Express for €4.4 billion ($4.8 billion; £3.2 billion) as it looked to expand its operations in Europe.
In February 2016, FedEx announced the launch of FedEx Cares, a global giving platform, and committed to invest $200 million to strengthen more than 200 communities by 2020.
In March 2018, FedEx announced the acquisition of P2P Mailing Limited, a last-mile delivery service, for £92 million to expand their portfolio.
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FedEx terminated its partnership with the National Rifle Association of America in October 2018 under pressure from activists.
In June 2019, FedEx announced it would not be renewing its $850 million contract with Amazon for the company's U.S. domestic express delivery business. Amazon accounted for 1.3 percent of 2018 revenues. In August 2019, FedEx announced the termination of ground deliveries for Amazon as well.
In December 2020, FedEx acquired ShopRunner, an e-commerce platform.
On March 29, 2022, founder Frederick W. Smith announced he would be retiring as CEO and would become executive chairman effective June 1, 2022. The company named Raj Subramaniam, FedEx's current president and COO, as Smith's successor.
In April 2023, FedEx announced plans to consolidate its operating companies into a single organization. In June 2024, FedEx Ground and FedEx Services were merged into Federal Express, creating a unified air-ground delivery network as part of the company's Network 2.0 restructuring.
In December 2024, FedEx announced plans to separate FedEx Freight from the company, creating two independent publicly traded companies. In June 2026, FedEx completed the spin-off, making FedEx Freight focused on the North American less-than-truckload market.
Spin-off of freight truck business
As of June 1, 2026, FedEx Freight announced the completion of its spin-off from FedEx Corporation, establishing the company as an independent, publicly traded company. FedEx Freight common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FDXF.”
From Wikipedia’s article on FedEx, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.9