Nortel this week said it its CDMA and LTE wireless business to Nokia Siemens Networks for $650 million. Nortel also said it is seeking buyers for the rest of the company’s operations – enterprise, optical and Metro Ethernet among them.Nortel is also delisting its shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange. In essence, the company, after 100-plus years as Canada’s foremost telecommunications equipment manufacturer and at one time valued at over $200 billion, is exiting the arena.

"The global financial crisis and recession compounded our challenges and impacted our ability to complete our transformation," Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski told the Canadian parliamentary finance commission last week, according to .

Analysts say Nortel had no choice but to follow this course.

“Nortel's plan to sell all of its divisions, including enterprise, is the right one,” says Steve Schuchart of Current Analysis. “It's been proven to this point that Nortel, as it is, cannot continue. The overall economy and Nortel’s performance over the last several years” forced them to liquidate assets.

“A declining economy, coupled with the fact that put a couple of business units up for sale that didn’t get bought … the company’s in a situation now where its viability is in question,” says Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group. "I’m not sure they had other choices.”