The plan confirmation essentially turns Enron into a corporate zombie, not quite a living business, but not yet dead.

Enron lives in the sense that about 1,000 workers remain in Houston, most wrapping up the loose ends of its bankruptcy. Their work is expected to continue for another two or more years.

The company, once one of the country's 10 largest, has died in the sense that nearly every revenue-generating piece of its former operation has been sold, will be sold, or is now defunct.

"Enron's collapse was a tragedy, and we couldn't restore all of the losses," said Martin Bienenstock, the company's lead bankruptcy lawyer. "But I think all of the value and jobs that were left to save, we were able to preserve them."

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez, who has managed nearly 20,000 motions, requests and other documents filed since Enron's December 2001 petition, and countless hours of oral argument, took nearly a month after the plan's court hearing to approve the document.

He rejected all objections to this plan, the product of long negotiations.

"Today's court approval acknowledges not only the tremendous amount of work that has been accomplished during the last 2 1/2 years, but also the overwhelming support of our economic constituents," Stephen Cooper, Enron's chief executive and chief restructuring officer, said in a prepared statement.

Enron's bankruptcy won't officially end until the plan becomes effective, which could take months as the company resolves some tax issues and transfers control of its remaining operations. Even then there will be a few years of work ahead to litigate or settle hundreds of remaining lawsuits, and ultimately pay all creditors.

For those creditors who have anxiously watched the company's bankruptcy legal bills approach $1 billion, Thursday is an important milestone as the legal bills should begin to decline dramatically.

"We're glad to see the process run its course," said David Bennett, a lawyer with Thompson & Knight, who represents a group of creditors critical of Enron's legal bills.

"I can't say we're excited about the results. But there would be nothing gained for any constituency by prolonging the bankruptcy."

At the same time, legal bills for the creditors, with hundreds of their own lawyers, have mounted. Although no tally is available, one bankruptcy lawyer following the proceedings, Richard Lapping of Thelen Reid & Priest, said Enron's bills may just be one-fifth, or one-tenth of the overall billings linked to the case.

Much of the two-plus years of bankruptcy have been consumed by negotiations between Enron and several large creditor groups, trying to seek a balance among competing interests fighting for limited assets.

As Enron's new management sifted through the company's books, separating financial fact from fiction, its assets shrunk from nearly $50 billion at the time of the bankruptcy filing to $12 billion. And the company's reported debts ballooned from $31.2 billion to an estimated $63 billion.

Enron will now pay about one-fifth of the value for most of its debts.

The company was also subjected to a lengthy, $100 million investigation by Neal Batson, an Atlanta lawyer who was brought in to determine which banks, advisers and executives contributed to the company's downfall.

"Maybe to the outside world this seems like it took an extraordinarily long time," said Howard Seife, a bankruptcy specialist for Chadbourne & Parke who represented St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., a member of Enron's creditors committee. "But given the complexities of the case it was actually done in a reasonable amount of time."

After its first year in bankruptcy Enron began marketing some of its biggest energy assets, including its pipelines. But the offers were disappointing.

"When the marketplace believed we had to sell, it submitted low- ball efforts," Bienenstock said.

Instead of accepting the roughly $1 billion it was offered for its three pipeline companies, Enron bundled them into a holding company called CrossCountry Energy and waited.

"When the markets saw we didn't sell, we all of a sudden got much larger offers," he said.

Now there's a bit of a bidding war for CrossCountry. The current high bid is $2.35 billion offered by a joint venture of Southern Union Co. and GE Capital. But other bidders in the auction have until Aug. 23. The hearing to determine the winner is set for Sept. 9.

Another of its big assets, Portland General Electric, will soon be sold to a group called Oregon Electric. The bankruptcy court has approved the $1.25 billion offer by the investment group backed by Texas Pacific Group, of Fort Worth, which is led by David Bonderman. The Oregon Public Utility Commission will begin public hearings next week on the request, and hopes to complete its work by year end, or possibly early next year, according to an official with the commission.

That will leave just one piece of Enron standing -- Prisma Energy International -- a collection of more than one dozen international power plants, pipelines and other energy assets Enron owns, or has a share of ownership in. No acceptable bids have been received, said Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne, so shares will be distributed to creditors.

Within a couple of years, depending on the desires of CrossCountry's buyer and the creditors that will control Prisma, just a handful of former Enron jobs could remain in Houston.

--Chronicle business writer Nelson Antosh contributed to this report.