Under overcast skies on a brisk Wednesday last month, more than two dozen Ben ⁘ Jerry's employees at the ice cream company's global headquarters in Vermont walked out and stood silently in front of their office building. Some bowed their heads and others stared straight ahead as the wind whipped flags—Black Lives Matter, Pride, and the stars and stripes—on a nearby pole. Almost hidden in the back row was company cofounder Ben Cohen, who started the ice cream franchise in 1978 with his pal Jerry Greenfield.
The troupe was protesting what Ben ⁘ Jerry's has called the firing of its CEO David Stever by the company's parent, Unilever , one of the world's largest conglomerates, with a market cap of about $150 billion. Stever had only been CEO since 2023 , but he had worked for the company for 34 years.
Unilever, the London-based firm behind products like Axe deodorant, Dove shampoo, Talenti ice cream, and Hellman's mayonnaise, bought the famously progressive ice cream maker in 2000, triggering alarm at the time among allies like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and the state's then-governor Howard Dean , along with customers and believers in the notion that businesses can be a force for good in the world. How could Ben ⁘ Jerry's sell out ?
For years, this unheard-of arrangement worked fairly well. Late last year, however, the independent board launched a lawsuit against the company over perceived breaches of the merger agreement, and last month it added allegations about Stever's ouster to an amended complaint.
Unilever has sought to have the court case dismissed and is challenging Ben ⁘ Jerry's board's legal standing. It also denies "the meritless allegations from the Independent Board of Ben ⁘ Jerry's," the company told Fortune in a statement. "The facts presented in court will show that Unilever has worked constructively with the Independent Social Mission Board over the past 24 years, and that we remain committed to Ben ⁘ Jerry's having a social mission."
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