Pretty soon, Nortel will finally disappear after two and a half years of bankruptcy protection.

The final chapter will be written when an auction of 6,000 patents will be completed – a process that has apparently attracted more than 100 interested parties, including Google and Research in Motion. The auction is expected to generate $1.5-billion.

It’s sad ending to what was a telecom powerhouse and Canada’s leading high-tech company. It was only a decade ago that then-CEO John Roth was talking about Nortel reaching $40-billion in sales.

There are a myriad of reasons why Nortel went from the penthouse to the outhouse – a lengthy list that includes bad acquisitions, terrible strategic decisions, CEOs that never should have been CEOs, financial scandals and intense competition.

But perhaps the hardest pill to swallow is how Nortel, specifically its senior management and the board, surrendered rather than fight on. After filing for bankruptcy protection, Nortel could have restructured to emerge as a smaller, more focused, more competitive and less debt-laden entity.

Instead, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski and the board, no doubt pressured by debt holders, decided to launch a scorched earth strategy by selling everything. While these sales have generated billions of dollars for creditors, Nortel will soon be no more.

The sale of Nortel’s patents is disheartening because there is so much great technology within the portfolio, particularly the company’s long-term evolution technology that will increase the speed and capacity of mobile networks. A former Nortel director, Sorin Cohn, estimates the buyers of Nortel’s patents could make as much as $15-billion from creating new products.

Astounding and saddening.

In an ideal world, Nortel would still be alive and well. Maybe it would only be a company with 5,000 employees operating in a few markets such as wireless. But that’s a better scenario that completely disappearing from the telecom landscape.

RIP, Nortel.