AST Research Inc., a personal computer manufacturer, announced a change in its accounting for acquisition-related expenditures. Costs previously deferred were to be expensed immediately. The change had no direct impact on current or future cash flows. A copy of the The Wall Street Journal article announcing AST’s accounting change follows:

AST RESEARCH AST Research said it is restating results for its fiscal 1994 fourth quarter as a result of a disagreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting rules.
The restatement will cause AST to report a loss of \($8.1\) millions, or 25 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended July 2, instead of the previously reported net income of \($14.1\) million, or 41 cents a share. The dispute arose out of an SEC review of AST’s proxy statement for a \($377.5\) million investment in the company by Samsung Electronics Company.
The SEC staff concluded that \($33.6\) million of the expenses related to AST’s 1993 acquisition of the computer manufacturing operations of Tandy Corporation should be charged to sales during the fourth quarter, rather than amortized over future quarters as goodwill.
AST said that the SEC didn't force it to restate the results, and that AST had agreed to the restatement to avoid delays in approval of the proxy and the Samsung investment. The resignation of income has no material effect on AST. It’s a noncash loss and will be offset by increases in net income in subsequent quarters, because of the lack of goodwill amortization.
In Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday, AST closed at \($17.625\), up 25 cents.

“They [the SEC] had a different interpretation on a piece of the accounting for the acquisition,” said Bruce Edwards, AST’s chief financial officer. “We decided to do the restatement to move forward on the transaction” with Samsung.
An SEC official acknowledged that the agency’s corporation finance division had been in talks with AST about its fourth quarter earnings report but wouldn't say whether the SEC pressured AST to revise the report.
It isn't unusual for the agency to question a company’s account of its own earnings, the official said. Only in rare cases does such a review spell bigger problems for the company, such as when the SEC thinks executives intentionally misstated earnings to hype a stock price. But there isn’t any indication that AST did that in this case, the official added.
AST also agreed to issue additional shares to Samsung if AST incurs any uninsured losses, in excess of a certain threshold, as a result of being sued by shareholders. AST said it has now received all necessary approvals for Samsung’s investment.
The company scheduled a special meeting of shareholders for June 30 to vote on the transaction.

Required:
Why was the stock market so forgiving in evaluating the accounting method change made by AST Research?