Analysts Drew Peck from SG Cowen and Joe Osha from Merrill Lynch both said they were shocked to
    see that Intel's amortization costs and investment income were higher than what Intel led them to believe.
    Both wonder if the company is using discretionary accounting to beef up its income. Take away the extra
    amortization from acquisitions and the extra money made by selling stocks in an inflated market, and the
    company had an OK quarter. Neither firm is an underwriter of Intel. 

    "I think they met expectations," said Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha. "It's not accurate to say that 69 cents
    [a share] reflects the operations of the company." 

    Intel reported as operating income the $508 million it realized in interest and sales of equity holdings. Osha
    said the company had led analysts to believe that that number would be around $200 million. The other
    area in question is amortization of goodwill from acquisitions, which was $241 million, up from the expected
    $185 million. Subtract out the difference of both, and you come much closer to 61.3 cents a share, or 2
    cents less than the Street's consensus.