Earlier this summer, shortly after David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird had signed their deal to acquire Paramount Global, I ran into Aaron Bronfman at a Nantucket dinner party. Amid casual chatter, young Aaron told me that his father, Edgar Bronfman Jr., was gearing up to make a rival bid for Paramount—which has had me scratching my head ever since. Now we know that it was all just a big waste of everyone’s time—from his financial advisors at Perella Weinberg and UBS and Rockefeller Capital Group to his legal advisors at Skadden Arps. The end came late Monday night, when Edgar finally threw in the towel. “It was a privilege to have the opportunity to participate,” he wrote.