It is early 2026, and if you haven't checked the fine print on your pint of Half Baked recently, things have gotten... complicated. For decades, the answer to who is the owner of Ben and Jerry's was a straightforward, if slightly ironic, one-word answer: Unilever. The British-Dutch mega-conglomerate that makes Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayo bought the Vermont hippies back in 2000.
But as of right now, that long, often-contentious marriage has finally hit the divorce courts of the corporate world.
If you’re looking for a name to put on the deed today, it's technically The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC). This is the new standalone entity birthed from Unilever’s massive 2025 "demerger." Unilever decided that managing high-maintenance ice cream brands—with their freezer-truck logistics and political headaches—wasn't worth the squeeze anymore.
So, they bundled Ben & Jerry's up with Magnum, Wall's, and Cornetto, and shoved them out the door into their own company.
Honestly, it's been a total mess behind the scenes.
The 2025 Spin-Off: Why Unilever Finally Let Go
For twenty-five years, Unilever and Ben & Jerry's existed in a state of "conscious uncoupling" that would make Gwyneth Paltrow dizzy.
The original 2000 sale agreement was weird. Like, really weird. Usually, when a big company buys a small one, the small one shuts up and does what it's told. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield didn't play that way. They legally mandated an Independent Board of Directors that had total control over the brand's "Social Mission."
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This board didn't report to Unilever's CEO. It didn't care about Unilever's stock price. It only cared about whatever social justice cause it felt like championing that week.
Things got ugly recently. Between 2021 and 2024, the board sued Unilever multiple times. They sued over sales in the West Bank. They sued over the right to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. They even sued because they felt Unilever was trying to "muzzle" them regarding American political figures.
By March 2024, Unilever’s CEO, Hein Schumacher, had enough. He announced the plan to spin off the entire ice cream division. By late 2025, the deal was mostly done, but not without a massive legal firestorm that saw long-time board members like Anuradha Mittal being forcibly removed by the new corporate parent.
Who is the owner of Ben and Jerry's right now?
- The Primary Owner: The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC), the newly independent company created by the Unilever spin-off.
- The Power Players: A new board of directors, currently being reshaped by TMICC leadership to be "less activist" and "more compliant."
- The Founders: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have zero ownership. They are just private citizens now, though they still show up to protest their own former company's management.
The Founders vs. The Suit-and-Tie Crowd
You've probably seen Ben and Jerry (the humans) in the news lately. They aren't happy.
In late 2025, they sent a pretty spicy open letter to the board of the new Magnum Ice Cream Company. They basically said the brand they built is being "eroded." They’re worried that without the original independent board, the company is just going to become another boring, corporate calorie-pusher.
The drama reached a fever pitch in December 2025 when TMICC implemented strict nine-year term limits for the board. This move conveniently "retired" the most vocal activists who had been thorns in Unilever's side for decades.
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It was a classic corporate "clean sweep."
The new CEO, Jochanan Senf, is a veteran of the traditional corporate world. He’s got the unenviable task of trying to keep the brand's "cool" factor alive while making sure it doesn't spark a billion-dollar geopolitical boycott every six months.
What Most People Get Wrong About the "Independent" Board
People think the board is just a group of friends. It's not. It was a legally binding entity created to preserve the "Essential Integrity of the Brand."
Under the old rules, this board was self-perpetuating. They picked their own members. Unilever couldn't fire them.
But the new owner, TMICC, has argued that the board members were overstepping. They claimed some members had conflicts of interest with the Ben & Jerry's Foundation. In late 2025, they used an audit as a pretext to essentially dismantle the board's old guard.
If you're keeping score at home:
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- 2000-2024: Unilever owned the money; the Independent Board owned the "soul."
- 2025-2026: TMICC owns the money and is currently trying to buy back the soul, or at least put it in a more manageable box.
Is Ben & Jerry's Still "Ben & Jerry's"?
That’s the $326 million question. (That's what Unilever paid for it in 2000, by the way).
The brand still supports Fairtrade. They still use non-GMO ingredients. They still make flavors like "Justice Remix'd."
But the friction is real. The founders, Ben and Jerry, have publicly called for the company to be "freed" and sold to a group of socially-aligned investors. They don't want it to be part of a publicly traded company at all.
That seems unlikely. The Magnum Ice Cream Company is a multi-billion dollar beast. They need Ben & Jerry’s because, frankly, it’s one of the only brands in their portfolio that people are actually obsessed with.
Actionable Takeaways for the Conscious Consumer
If you're following who is the owner of Ben and Jerry's because you care about where your money goes, here's the deal:
- Watch the Board: The current legal battles in the Southern District of New York will determine if the "Social Mission" survives. If the independent board loses its autonomy, the brand's activism will likely become a lot more "corporate-friendly."
- Check the Label: You’ll start seeing the Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) branding on corporate filings and potentially on packaging as the transition from Unilever wraps up.
- Support the Foundation: The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation is a separate non-profit that receives a portion of pre-tax profits. Even if the corporate side gets messy, the foundation still does a lot of grassroots work in Vermont and beyond.
The era of Ben & Jerry's being a "rebel subsidiary" of a global giant is over. It’s now a lead player in a dedicated ice cream company that is trying very hard to figure out how to be "woke" without hurting its IPO price. It's a weird time to be a pint of Phish Food.
To stay informed on how this impacts the actual product, you should keep an eye on the company's annual "Social and Environmental Assessment Report" (SEAR). This document is where they are legally required to disclose whether they are actually meeting their social mission goals or just using them as marketing fluff. If you notice the SEAR reports getting thinner or more vague in 2026, you'll know the corporate suits have officially won the war for the brand's identity.