I worked at Sony Music during the time of the rootkit fiasco and I was a bit surprised by the reaction of the internet. There were many organized boycotts of Sony Corporate, Sony Playstation, etc… while nobody tried to boycott any Bertelsmann products (and there are plenty). The irony is that the individual in charge of that division of Sony BMG came over in the merger from Bertelsmann.

While Sony certainly stood to reap the brand benefits, they also reaped almost all of the negative publicity.