How these industries consolidated

3 explainers on how consumer industries came to be owned by so few companies, each one citing the filings and decisions behind the story.

• How antitrust remedies create new brand owners

  When a regulator lets a merger through on condition that brands are sold, it hands a competitor a business it could not otherwise have bought. This is why Corona has a different owner in the United States than everywhere else.

  Sep 2026 · 981 words · 4 sources

• The great unbundling: why the biggest consumer companies are breaking themselves up

  For a century consumer groups grew by absorbing brands. Since 2023, Kellogg, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever have each split in two, and the ownership records almost everyone relies on have not caught up.

  Sep 2026 · 829 words · 5 sources

• The ice cream aisle just changed owners, and almost nobody noticed

  In December 2025 Unilever demerged the largest ice cream business in the world. Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, Breyers and Wall's now belong to a separately listed company, and most published answers are still wrong.

  Sep 2026 · 1,210 words · 4 sources