They were sold to Unilever.
Not sure if B&J still get some royalties.
Correct. Ben & Jerry are out. It turns out they almost ruined the company and it was ultimately saved by (gasp!) CAPITALISM. HERE is how it happened:
the Ben & Jerry's alternative management style lacked the fiscal and managerial discipline market analysts and investors demanded. The company's stock had fallen from almost $34 in 1993 to $17 in 1999.
Enter Unilever and Yves Couette, Unilever's choice to be the CEO of its new oddball acquisition. As a longtime corporate Unilever executive, the French-born Couette had spent several years running businesses in Mexico and India. Couette needed to thread the proverbial needle as the CEO, to understand this alternative American organization enough to preserve the intangible assets of Unilever's new acquisition while at the same time introducing some parent-company fiscal and managerial controls.
... Couette knew that some things needed to change at Ben & Jerry's to deliver a financial return to Unilever. In a very un–Ben & Jerry's act, he downsized the company—eliminating jobs and closing plants. He provided structure and introduced some basic organizational practices, and opened Ben & Jerry's positions to Unilever's global talent pool. Knowing that these moves would be unpopular with the employees, he justified them by saying that "the best way to spread Ben & Jerry's enlightened ethic throughout the business world was to make the company successful."