Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Ben & Jerry’s Buy Back

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Ben & Jerry in talks to buy back eponymous brand from Unilever (UL). (00:30) Anheuser-Busch (BUD) sees only a limited impact on beer prices from tariffs in 2025. (02:05) META said to apologize for glitch that flooded Instagram Reels with graphic content. (02:56)

This is an abridged transcript.

The founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream are reportedly in talks to buy the iconic company back from Unilever plc (NYSE:UL).

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who started their ice cream business in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, sold the business in 2000 for $326M. The company has since gone on to become the number one selling ice cream in the U.S. with annual sales reaching a billion dollars.

Last year, in an effort to slim down its business and focus on its core businesses, Unilever (NYSE:UL) was in discussions to either sell its ice-cream business – which includes Ben & Jerry’s, Breyer’s, and Magnum – to a private-equity firm, or spin off the business into an IPO to be listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange.

This was part of a broader concession to the Netherlands government to retain some of Unilever’s (NYSE:UL) operations in the country. In return for tax incentives, Unilever (UL) vowed to list any businesses that were spun-off in the future with the Dutch exchange. After the private-equity deal fell through, Unilever (UL) continued to move ahead with the separation of the ice cream business.

With Unilever (UL) opening up the possibility of a sale, Cohen and Greenfield could regain ownership of their namesake company, albeit at a significant premium from its sale in 2000.

According to Bloomberg, Cohen and Greenfield may look to partner with socially minded investors with “deep pockets” to finance a multi-billion dollar acquisition.

In an emailed statement to Bloomberg, Unilever (UL) insists the business is not for sale.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) does not expect tariffs on aluminum to have a major impact on the prices of its U.S. beers in the near term.

CEO Michel Doukeris told Reuters that the company uses prepared aluminum for cans mostly from local U.S. companies, but those firms source the raw metal from all over the world. While the cost of the prepared aluminum could rise as a result of tariffs along the supply chain, factors like hedging and productivity initiatives are anticipated to limit the impact in 2025.

However, Doukeris warned the impact on U.S. beer prices in 2026 could be more pronounced in 2026 if tariffs come into full force.

Shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) ended the day Wednesday up 7.2% after showing improvement with its Q4 earnings report.

Meta (NASDAQ:META) has apologized for a glitch on Instagram after users worldwide reported that their feeds were flooded with graphic short-form videos, including those of people being killed and maimed.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the videos were recommended on users’ Reels tab on Wednesday, some of which had “sensitive content” warnings while others did not. The videos reportedly included people being shot, run over by vehicles, and being subject to cartel violence.

“We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended,” a spokesperson for Instagram told WSJ. “We apologize for the mistake.”

An Instagram spokesperson said that the error was unrelated to Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) decision to ease its content moderation policies to avoid censoring speech.

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Catalyst watch:

• Notable investor events include Frontdoor’s (FTDR) Investor Day, Primo Brands’ (PRMB) Investor Day, and G. Willi-Food International’s (WILC) special meeting to vote on leadership appointments and compensation policy.

• Perspective Therapeutics (CATX), Varex Imaging (VREX), and Zymeworks (ZYME) are some of the companies participating in the B. Riley Securities Precision Oncology & Radiopharma Conference.

• The Information’s AI Agenda Live event in San Francisco will include participation by Anthropic, PagerDuty (PD), Adobe (ADBE), and IBM (IBM).

• Intel (INTC) will participate in a fireside chat on the company’s business and foundry strategy at the Bernstein Technology, Media & Telecom Forum.

Now let’s take a look at the markets ahead of the opening bell. Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is up 0.8% at $69/barrel. Bitcoin is down 3.2% at $86,000.

In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.2% and the DAX is down 1.1%.

The biggest movers for the day premarket: Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) +9% – Shares surged after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and guidance.

On today’s economic calendar:

• 8:30 am GDP

• 10:00 am Pending Home Sales Index

• 1:15 pm Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Beth Hammack speaks on “Financial Stability” before the Columbia University/Bank Policy Institute: 2025 Bank Regulation Research Conference.

• 3:15 pm Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker speaks on the economic outlook before the Lyons Economic Forecast, presented by the University of Delaware’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship.