$326 million persuades Ben & Jerry's to sell out

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Ben & Jerry's, the counterculture-capitalist ice cream maker, is selling out to the corporate suits.

Unilever, the multinational conglomerate that makes such products as Wisk detergent, Q-tips and Popsicles, is paying $326 million for the company started by two ex-hippies in an old gas station in 1978.

Unilever, already the world's largest ice cream maker, is making sure all the bases are covered by buying the weight-loss business Slim-Fast Foods for $2.3 billion.

The Ben & Jerry's deal announced yesterday would bring the socially conscious maker of funky ice cream flavors like Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia under the same corporate umbrella as Good Humor and Breyers ice cream.

It was an outcome neither Ben Cohen nor Jerry Greenfield favored. But the two founders were under pressure from shareholders to sell to Unilever, which offered $43.60 a share, or nearly 25 percent over Ben Jerry's closing price Tuesday of $34.938.

Ben & Jerry's shares shot up 23 percent yesterday, rising $8.125 on the Nasdaq Stock Market to close at $43.063.

"While we and others certainly would have pursued our mission as an independent enterprise, we hope that, as part of Unilever, Ben & Jerry's will continue to expand its role in society," Cohen and Greenfield said in a statement.

Unilever said Ben & Jerry's charitable giving will continue.

The founders' disappointment may have been assuaged somewhat by the fact Cohen's stock was worth about $39 million and Greenfield's was worth about $9.6 million, based on holdings reported last month to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ben & Jerry's Chief Executive Perry Odak said it will continue manufacturing exclusively in Vermont, paying a premium for milk from the state's dairy farmers and using milk only from cows not treated with growth hormone. It will also continue giving employees three free pints of ice cream a day.

Unilever plans to use Cohen and Greenfield as "caring capitalism" ambassadors, preaching the gospel of social concerns, product quality and profits, Odak said. The two men withdrew from the day-to-day running of Ben & Jerry's several years ago.

Ben & Jerry's will operate as an independent subsidiary of Unilever.