Company offers $710 million for Railtrack

British government-backed company Network Rail made an offer on Monday to pay $710 million for Railtrack, a deal that would compensate shareholders for some of the losses they suffered when the rail network was forced out of business. As part of the acquisition, Network Rail would assume $9.2 billion in Railtrack debt, boosting the total value of the deal to at least $9.9 billion. Critics of the deal said the government was panicked into arranging the offer after leading banks threatened to withhold funding for future projects unless it agreed to reimburse shareholders, reported The Associated Press. The government refused to compensate Railtrack shareholders after Transport Secretary Stephen Byers withdrew Railtrack's subsidies in October.