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When all else fails, bring in a motivational speaker. For last Friday's management meeting, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker went all out, bringing in Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Glossed over in Kara Swisher's otherwise excellent report was the question: Why would Jobs rally the troops at Yahoo? Swisher treats it as an obvious choice, likening Jobs to Oprah Winfrey. But I think there's more to it than that.

Look no further than the iPhone for an explanation why. Though Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on Apple's board of directors and Google pays Apple for the traffic its Safari Web browser generates, Jobs tapped Yahoo to provide email for the iPhone. I think Jobs's appearance at the Yahoo event served as a reminder to Schmidt that Apple's not a wholly owned subsidiary of Google.

And there's also the personal connection. Decker used to serve on the board of Pixar, where Jobs was also CEO, before Disney bought the animated-film studio. It can't hurt to keep that relationship warm — especially when Jobs can use it to squeeze better terms out of Google.