TORONTO - Nortel Networks is gathering the names of interested bidders for its enterprise business ahead of a Friday deadline, but as auctions whittle down it's operations, the question remains of what, if anything, will exist of Nortel once the dust settles.

The future of the company relies on what parts of its operations sell, and whether all of the divisions find a home with interested buyers at a price deemed worthwhile by Nortel's board of directors.

Any pieces that don't find a buyer, whether it's an entire division or patent rights, could form a much smaller Nortel, say sources close to the company who are familiar with the process.

Patent ownership has proven to be a lucrative market for some technology companies which have built their fortunes on licensing fees from the rights to certain products.

One of the world's biggest intellectual property companies is Ottawa-based Mosaid Technologies Inc. (TSX:MSD), which develops semiconductor memory technology and licenses patented intellectual property in semiconductors and telecommunications systems.

Whether Nortel considers etching a similar path with its own patents depends on the months ahead when numerous auctions determine who owns various pieces of the company.

"Nortel will most likely be out of the business of researching, creating and marketing new technologies to the telecommunications market," said Carmi Levy, a telecom analyst at AR Communications Inc.

"However, they may exist in a relatively small capacity as owners of intellectual property."

On Friday, Nortel wraps up the submission process for its enterprise division, and will head into an auction process on Sept. 11.

American communications giant Avaya submitted a $475-million stalking horse bid for the division in July and has since been the only interested bidder to publicly confirm its interest.

Rumours have suggested that American-German joint venture Siemens Gore is also participating in the enterprise auction, though calls to company representatives were not returned on Thursday.

Nortel also plans to auction its prized Metro Ethernet Networks, which some analysts say could fetch up to $1.5 billion. A date hasn't been set for the auction or the submission process.

The company's ethernet division is considered one of its strongest assets because it includes the rights to technology that enhances the speed and capacity of current fibre optic networks by as much as 10 times.

Faster connections are highly lucrative in the current market as more people watch video and transfer large files online.

Technology analyst Duncan Stewart believes a similar technology isn't available at any other company, which means that it could spark a bidding war similar to the one seen for Nortel's wireless division earlier this summer.

"If they don't get a good enough bid (the board) may decide that the stakeholders would be best served keeping it as a company that's in the fibre optics business," Stewart suggested.

For now, all that is certain is that Nortel plans to continue serving its customers in the foreseeable future, a promised emphasized by the company in July when chief executive Mike Zafirovski quit.

Everything else is up for grabs.