The cynical suggestions that somehow it's all a ploy to "keep us interested" is... pardon my cynicism... so predictable and yet so absurd. You can't seriously believe that discussions of some kind to some degree did not take place, and it's all just a Jerry prank.
To be fair to Jerry... don't laugh, it's actually do-able... he did say he thought the odds were more likely no deal would be made than that there would be.
To be fair to common sense... we can never know what we can never know, being without hidden microphones to pick up on inside intel... and it's literally impossible for mere mortals like all of us to assess whether any deal should have gotten done but was rejected out of some lack of competence.
Just sayin.