Could have been common courtesy to the largest shareholder or

An exercise in the saying “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” from either or both parties.

I would also think that both guys are interesting and entertaining at a business interaction level, laughing politely while trying to reveal as little as possible and each trying to be the one who talks the least and listens the most. There could be a PTSC novel, or at least a chapter, written around this kind of interplay!