During the second half of the 20th century, the company increasingly diversified from being a maker of products made of oils and fats, and expanded its operations worldwide.

It has made numerous corporate acquisitions, including Lipton (1971), Brooke Bond (1984), Pond's (1987), Hellmann's (2000), Ben & Jerry's (2000), SlimFast (2000), Knorr (2000), Alberto-Culver (2010), Dollar Shave Club (2016), and Pukka Herbs (2017).

[9] In 1943, it acquired T. J. Lipton, a majority stake in Frosted Foods (owner of the Birds Eye brand in the UK)[10] and Batchelors Peas, one of the largest vegetables canners in the United Kingdom.

[11] However, a stagnant market for yellow fats (butter, margarine, and similar products) and increasing competition in detergents and soaps from Procter & Gamble forced Unilever to diversify.

[30] The Bestfoods acquisition increased Unilever's scale in foods in America, and added brands including Knorr, Marmite, Bovril, and Hellmann's to its portfolio.

[30] In exchange for European regulatory approval of the deal, Unilever divested itself of Oxo, Lesieur, McDonnells, Bla Band, Royco, and Batchelors.

[44] In 2009, Unilever agreed to acquire the personal care business of Sara Lee Corporation, including brands such as Radox, Badedas and Duschdas.

[49] acquired EVGA's ice cream brands, which included Scandal, Variete and Karabola, and its distribution network in Greece, for an undisclosed amount.

[6] Unilever bought the United States–based startup company Dollar Shave Club for a reported $1b (£764m) to compete in the male grooming market.

[80] Upfield's notable brands include Flora, Stork, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Rama, Country Crock, Becel, and Blue Band.

[82][83] In April 2021, Unilever established a new stand-alone beauty business, Elida Beauty, which will own and manage the following brands: Brut, Brylcreem, Timotei, Q-tips, Noxema, TIGI, VO5, Toni & Guy, Matey, Moussel, Monsavon, Impulse, St Ives, Alberto Balsam, Badedas, Fissan, Pento, Pond's, Careess, Lever 2000, Williams, Elida, and Alberto.

[84] In August 2021, Florida governor Ron DeSantis placed Unilever on a list of "Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel" because it had "no current plan to prevent Ben & Jerry's from terminating business activities in Israeli-controlled territories".

The ice-cream brand has 90 days to stop engaging in "the BDS movement", or the state will no longer contract with the parent company Unilever or any of its subsidiaries.

[85] In November 2021, Unilever agreed to sell most of its tea business under the Ekaterra division to investment firm CVC Capital Partners for €4.5 billion.

[87] In December 2023, Unilever announced the company would sell Elida Beauty to Yellow Wood Partners, a private equity firm in the United States.

[94][95] In 2018, Unilever announced its intention to simplify this structure by centralising the duality of legal entities and keeping just one headquarters in Rotterdam, abandoning the London head office.

[94] On 5 October 2018 the group announced it would cancel the restructuring due to concern that the United Kingdom shareholders would lose value if the company fell out of the London FTSE100.

[102] In 2018, UK recruitment website Indeed, named Unilever as the United Kingdom's ninth best private sector employer[103] based on millions of employee ratings and reviews.

[119] Unilever's largest brands include Dove, Knorr, Axe (Lynx), Ben & Jerry's, Hellmann's, Lifebuoy, Lux, Magnum, Persil (Omo), Rexona, Sunlight, Sunsilk, and Wall's (Heartbrand).

[124] Axe, known as Lynx in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, is a toiletries brand marketed towards young men between the ages of 16 and 24.

The company cited their "Responsibility Framework and the polarized atmosphere in the U.S." and said that "continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society".

[133] In April 2011, Unilever was fined €104 million by the European Commission for establishing a price-fixing cartel for washing powder in Europe, along with Procter & Gamble and Henkel.

A Wall Street Journal writer described that "Giant corporation generates huge quantities of free advertising and brand equity for tiny rival by suing it.

[147] In March 2016, Unilever reached an out of court settlement (for an undisclosed amount) with 591 ex-workers of the unit who had sued the company for knowingly exposing them to the toxic element.

[151] Furthermore, Indonesia was the 14th[152] largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely due to the destruction of rainforests for the palm oil industry, which contributed to 4% of global green house gas emissions.

[153] According to Greenpeace, palm oil expansion was taking place with little oversight from central or local government as procedures for environmental impact assessment, land-use planning and ensuring a proper process for development of concessions were neglected.

[155] In Côte d'Ivoire, one of Unilever's palm oil suppliers was accused of clearing forest for plantations, an activity that threatened a primate species, Miss Waldron's red colobus.

[175] On 8 August 2016, the Israeli Health minister suspended a manufacturing license until Unilever carry out several corrections; the action came after an inspection of the Arad plant, stating "This was a series of negligent mistakes and not an incident with malicious intent by the firm's management and quality control procedures.

"[189] In July 2023, the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention included Unilever in their list of "war sponsors" for not ceasing operations in Russia and continuing to profit from this market.

[190] The same month, Unilever's new CEO, Hein Schumacher, told reporters the company had considered leaving Russia, but had concluded that "operating our business in a constrained manner is the least bad option and that is where we are.