Can the US government "acquire" a company? Contract that company to handle it, sure, but actually BUY the company?
Worked for Amtrak didn't it? Well, "worked" to an extent.
A better example would be Conrail, the US owned railroad that took over the Penn Central. Although in this case Penn Central was completely bankrupt, and I'm not sure if the US government actually paid anything to Penn Central's shareholders.