It was looking good for The Magnum Ice Cream Company—Unilever’s soon-to-be-spun-off ice cream division.

All the ingredients were in place: a portfolio of leading brands including Cornetto, Klondike, and the titular Magnum; an installed base of more than three million ice cream cabinets; and the instant advantage of being the largest player in the very attractive global ice cream category. Scale, share, brands, profits—what could possibly go wrong?

The answer: founders.

One of the other mega-brands in Magnum’s new portfolio is Ben & Jerry’s. And both Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are very unhappy. Jerry is so unhappy, he’s leaving, as he announced in a letter shared by Cohen on Sept. 15.

When Ben & Jerry’s was sold to Unilever in 2000, the founders were promised autonomy and freedom to

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