Courts in the United States and Canada have given the OK for Nortel Networks Ltd. to sell off its enterprise business unit.

The decision paves the way for an auction of the enterprise unit, set for a rather ominous date: Sept. 11 in New York, according to a Bloomberg report today. Deadline for bids will be Sept. 4.

Avaya Inc. has had the pleasure of the opening bid, at $475 million, but it's likely the division will go for more than that. Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG was previously flagged as a possible bidder, and private equity firm MatlinPatterson Global Advisors LLC has talked about amassing chunks of Nortel to revive the company, although it obviously wasn't able to snare the wireless piece. (See Avaya Offers $475M for Nortel's Enterprise and Nortel: Think Big.)

In case you've already lost count: Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) won the wireless piece in a July 26 auction, putting up $1.13 billion to beat the initial $650 million offer from Nokia Networks . (See Ericsson Delivers Knockout Blow to NSN and Nortel: It's All Up for Sale.)

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading