Nortel agrees to sell enterprise unit for $475 million

Local Nortel workers, say aloha to Avaya.

Nortel Networks today announced plans to sell its enterprise solutions business, which has a large operation at the company's shrinking Research Triangle Park campus.

The buyer, if the $475 million bid isn't trumped and if it wins bankruptcy court approval, is Avaya, a New Jersey-based telecommunications equipment maker.

Customers shouldn't see any disruption from the deal, said Joel Hackney, the RTP-based president of the enterprise solutions unit, in a prepared statement.

What remains unclear is what a future under Avaya holds for Nortel's remaining 1,850 or so employees in RTP. A good portion of those survivors would transfer to Avaya, assuming that deal goes through.

But acquiring companies love to justify such takeovers by cutting costs, and jobs.

At its peak earlier this decade, Nortel employed about 8,500 in RTP. The Canadian company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and has been trying to sell its pieces.