Ben & Jerry's sold for $326 million with 1 condition. The new owner broke it — and now the co-founder wants it back

When Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield sold Ben & Jerry's to Unilever successful 2000 for a reported $326 cardinal (1), they besides extracted a committedness that turned retired to beryllium the astir consequential clause successful the deal: The marque would clasp an autarkic committee of directors whose occupation was to support its societal mission, nary substance who owned the company. (2)

For much than 2 decades, that statement held. Until it didn't.

Must Read

• Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you tin present go a landlord for arsenic small arsenic $100 — and no, you don't person to woody with tenants oregon hole freezers. Here's how

• Robert Kiyosaki says this 1 plus volition surge 400% successful a twelvemonth and begs investors not to miss this ‘explosion’

• Dave Ramsey warns astir 50% of Americans are making 1 large Social Security mistake — here’s however to hole it ASAP

By January 1 this year, Magnum — the crystal pick conglomerate spun retired of Unilever — had removed each of Ben & Jerry's autarkic directors but for 1 Unilever-appointed manager and CEO, Dairy Reporter noted. (3)

The autarkic committee sued, alleging the determination straight violated the archetypal merger agreement. (4) The Ben & Jerry's Foundation subsequently won a tribunal ruling to articulation that suit aft Magnum stopped providing it with approved funding, Vermont Business Magazine reported. (5)

Cohen isn't staying quiet.

"We're turning up the heat," helium told the New York Times. (2) He's asked Magnum to merchantability Ben & Jerry's to a values-aligned capitalist group, and threatened a boycott of each Magnum products — which see Breyers, Klondike and Talenti — if it doesn't comply.

What's really being disputed

The ineligible combat centers connected a governance operation that was deliberately baked into the 2000 merchantability agreement. At the clip of the acquisition, Unilever committed that Ben & Jerry's would clasp an autarkic committee focused connected "providing enactment for Ben & Jerry's societal ngo and marque integrity," FoodOnline reported. (6)

Cohen and Greenfield said astatine the clip they hoped the institution would "continue to grow its relation successful society" nether Unilever's ownership. (6)

Magnum has countered that it acted wrong its ineligible and contractual rights, arguing that the removed directors had go "ineligible" to service — immoderate owed to exceeding word limits and others implicit alleged misconduct — framing this arsenic antithetic from outright removal. The autarkic committee calls it a coordinated dismantling. (3)

"This is astir much than a contract," Liz Bankowski, President of Ben & Jerry's Foundation Board of Trustees, told Vermont Business Magazine. "It's astir whether a corp tin weaponize a governance operation and withhold backing erstwhile anterior commitments and values go inconvenient." (5)