Avaya made it official this afternoon and announced plans to raise $1 billion through an initial public offering of stock.
The New Jersey company, with about 200 employees in Research Triangle Park, said in a regulatory filing it will use the proceeds of the stock sale to pay off debt and for other purposes.
Avaya gained a presence in the Triangle in late 2009 with the acquisition of Nortel Networks' Enterprise Solutions Unit. The global unit provides data and telecom service and software for companies and call centers.
An IPO had been long expected. Avaya went private in 2007 but after the $933 million Nortel acquisition, the company indicated it would look for opportunities to go public again.
Avaya has over 400,000 customers, including more than 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies.
The company's top executives include RTP-based Joel Hackney Jr., 42, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing and President, Field Operations. Hackney was Nortel's top site executive in RTP and ran the Enterprise Solutions unit.
Hackney's base salary at Avaya is $650,000 a year, not including bonuses, stock options or other incentive payments, according to the IPO filing.
The date and price of the public stock offering have not been set and the company has not identified a ticker symbol.
According to today's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Avaya last made a profit in 2007.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), hydralic fracturing (or "fracking"), public utilities (both electric and natural gas) and health care. His beat includes Progress Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Biogen Idec and others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or