You're assuming it's bad PR. The people who are complaining about this aren't particularly likely to be potential Cloudant customers. On the other hand, the rest of the Fortune 500 is probably more likely to become a Cloudant customer as a result of the press release. In fact, the firestorm the press release caused only exposed it to more potential customers who are unlikely to share the same negative feelings.
Agree every young internet company needs their "dead bodies parts selling on ebay" moment. A corporate CEO scanning the WSJ seeing a headline like this is ultimately a good thing:
"Cloudant drawing heat from tech community over Monsanto deal"
or in the futre
"DOJ investigating possible Cloudant deal with (insert rogue nation) ..."
