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Unilever has owned B&J's for quite some time now.
I just looked it up, Unilever bought them in April of 2000. That's over 25 years ago. Part of that merger was an agreement that B&J's could still be vocal about things, and it looks like Unilever has tried to go back on that several times. Something I also just found, Unilever is apparently spinning off the ice cream brands... I guess we will see what happens next.
Important caveat: IANAL.
I've seen elsewhere the response to the Ben and Jerry's news hitting basically boiling down to "fucking cry about it sell outs, you got into bed with Unilever". Which, sure, fine if that's your (general "you", not you specifically OP) perspective, far be it from me to yuck your yums. That being said, according to the AP article I read, they carved out (or attempted to) the right to continue to manage the social justice aspect of the Ben and Jerry's brand without interference, in perpetuity, as a condition of the sale. As I understand it, Unilever has done a number of things to erode those carveouts, basically by repeatedly spinning off portions of the business into new companies, which they argue are not beholden to that agreement. For example, despite Ben and Jerry's public support of Palestine and objection to their products being sold in Israel, Unilever simply licensed the product to Israeli manufacturers who sell it under their own brand names. Additionally, and this is what appears to be what precipitated this departure, they are now spinning all of their frozen confectionary brands off into something like Magnum Foods (because the two things I want to have on my mind while looking for ice cream are guns and condoms).
Like, I understand anyone who looks at the hundreds of millions that these guys received in 2000 and has difficulty mustering sympathy for their plight. That being said, I don't begrudge them their pay day. They said, at the time, that the partnership would enable them to extend their social justice campaigns beyond what they could do as independents. From what I've seen, they've largely lived up to that over the ensuing years.
Yeah. They tried to have it both ways, though, and a corporate giant like Unilever was never going to let that go on forever.
Perhaps. I won't find fault with someone who took every reasonable measure within their power to try and maintain some degree of ethics. Bitching about Ben and Jerrys corporate management sounds a lot like letting perfect be the enemy of good. Just my take on it tho.
Honestly, it's incredible both of them lasted the 20+ years they did. This sounds like PE buyout and CEOs and company founders don't tend to be around long after the transition. They did good. They should be proud. I'd love a list of what they accomplished with their social justice initiatives but I'm in bed. I'll check tomorrow.