Those contests are never about the actual code/algorithms they produce, it's always about recruiting the people who write them. For the price of $1mil (plus a

Those contests are never about the actual code/algorithms they produce, it's always about recruiting the people who write them. For the price of $1mil (plus a bit of engineering time) they got a list of talented engineers who have too much time, and also everyone now knows that they are the company with the really challenging problems. Forward the list to recruiting, and you got a bunch of new hires, much more effective than paying for job ads.