I am fairly certain that all investors are in it for the money. And all big investors are in it for the big money. All Institutional investors are in it for insane amounts of money.

They own both a piece of Delta and a piece of United strictly because of two factors: one United route network and two Delta's management team. For United they believe the route network is very strong and would be a formidable force to reckon with if higher PRASM's can be realized off those routes. On the Delta front, they know the top 8 managers from Gordon Bethune's turn-a-round of Continental are key decision makers at DAL and they are betting they will keep that airline efficient and competitive.

Since they aren't going "all in" on one airline over another, they are simply content to make a butt-load of cash from both. Too risky putting all their eggs in one airline basket.

If they can be successful in putting up candidates for each board they will be more likely to invest more money in both. This gives them "hedges" against their cash positions in being comfortable with the decision-making skills of their candidates.

It's sort of like Obama putting up an ultra liberal judge for Supreme Court. Obama doesn't have to wonder how that person will rule on abortion or other liberal special interests.

hedge funds and other institutional investment firms seem to do this allot at publicly traded companies when large sums of money are in play.