This was the only 'outcome' that was available to salesforce. If they took away UpShots prize money, they would have upset a lot of people who felt that prizes shouldn't be taken away after the fact, that upshot won by playing within the rules, etc. If they kept the ruling how it was, they still would upset a lot of people who felt cheated by upshot using existing code. Realistically they couldn't rejudge the entire competition, and even if they did there would be people complaining about that. They ran the hackathon poorly, they communicated poorly by posting certain things on the forums, etc, they judged it poorly, and now they just want out from under their own mess with the least damage possible<p>Salesforce had one out, throw money at the problem and hope it fades away.