Blackstone, Carlyle Group, Onex Corp., and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have joined forces in a bid to acquire aluminum products maker Arconic, according to people familiar with the matter. Such alliances, referred to as "club deals" in the private-equity industry, lost much of their allure following the 2008 financial crisis, as some high-profile leveraged buyouts either ended up in bankruptcy or underperformed financially. Many buyout firms, accustomed to sole operational control of the companies they buy and deciding how and when to cash out on their investment on their own, occasionally clashed with peers they teamed up with.