Ultimately, it's a matter of trust.
NCsoft have said that they exhausted all options (including selling the game).
Other sources have said that they tried to open negotiations for purchase, but received zero response from NCsoft to their advances.
Hypothetically, anyone could say that they tried to contact NCsoft to open such negotiations, and this being the Internet, we have no way to verify the veracity of their statement, but when multiple separate groups report the same response (or lack thereof) to such attempts, it implies a corporate stance on NCsoft's part to ignore such advances.
The burden of proof lies on NCsoft's shoulders, to my eyes: they claim to have exhausted all options, but there is anecdotal "evidence" to the contrary. NCsoft have not said "we spoke to all interested parties and were unable to reach an agreement". If they said that, it would be a clear statement, and anyone who has NOT had a response from them would be well within their rights to request an explanation. As it is, all we have is that NCsoft have exhausted all options, and since there are comments to the contrary, we automatically add "that we could be bothered to explore" to the end.
Thus, NCsoft's communications have not been transparent with us or the interested parties, and skepticism on our part is only natural, which leads to the conclusion that NCsoft are withholding details unnecessarily.