Triangle technology company Avaya will add 135 high-paying jobs over four years in exchange for nearly $1.7 million in state incentives, state officials said this afternoon.

Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Avaya is the company that two years ago bought a division from bankrupt Nortel Networks for $933 milion, assuring continued employment for 230 Nortel workers in Research Triangle Park.

Avaya, which makes advanced phone systems for businesses, employs 304 in North Carolina today, including 193 in RTP. The 135 jobs to be added between 2012 and 2015 will pay an average wage of $87,704, which is above the Durham County average of $61,256.

Avaya is expanding its site, formerly occupied by Nortel, with a new marketing and sales hub equipped with a video communications demonstation center. The company will bring in 15 employees from other locations, but most of the hires will be local.

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.

About 200 Triangle workers could soon be working for a publicly-traded company if an IPO takes place as has been widely speculated on Wall Street.

Avaya, maker of telecom gear and software for corporations and call centers, is widely expected to go public, as early as this week, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and other outlets.

The New Jersey company employs about 200 in the Triangle, down from about 230 in late 2009 when Avaya acquired the Enterprise Solutions unit from Nortel Networks for $915 million. Avaya has 19,000 workers worldwide.

Avaya, formerly a division of AT&T, was spun off in 2000 and traded on the New York Stock Exchange until 2007, when it was taken private by Wall Street investors.

The company's office in Research Triangle Park features North American Hosted Solutions Center that manages data, software and cloud services for Avaya's clients.

Another group of Nortel Networks employees at Research Triangle Park has been extended a career lifeline.

Genband, a technology company based in Texas, is offering $282 million to buy Nortel's Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions unit. As part of the offer, Genband said it would expand its operation in North Carolina and in Canada, where Nortel is headquartered.

The unit, also known as CVAS, has 2,200 workers globally and 1,100 in the United States. Nortel spokeswoman Jamie Moody said the company doesn't provide staffing details by region so it's unclear how many local workers could end up working for Genband.

"We expect to make employment offers to a significant majority of Nortel CVAS employes," Genband CEO Charles Vogt said in a statement.

The anxiety is over for 230 Nortel Networks workers in Research Triangle Park who have a new boss and a steady job, thanks to a deal finalized today in which former rival Avaya is taking over a key Nortel business unit.

As part of the $915 million acquisition, Avaya is absorbing 6,000 Nortel workers worldwide, including 25 top managers. One of the managers is Joel Hackney, the top executive for Nortel's RTP operations who oversaw the Enterprise Solutions unit that Avaya has acquired.

Enterprise Solutions employed about 280 people at RTP as of October, and 230 of those who remained today made the cut at Avaya.

Nortel Network's top executive in Research Triangle Park will join New Jersey's Avaya as part of a $915 million acquisition.  

Joel Hackney, a Chapel Hill native, is among 25 Nortel executives who will join Avaya when the company takes over Nortel's Enterprise Solutions Unit. As part of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed next month, 5,900 Nortel employees will join Avaya.

Avaya made the announcement internally on Monday.

Most of the Triangle Nortel employees joining Avaya will continue working from North Carolina, said Avaya spokeswoman Lynn Newman.

Nortel Networks won bankruptcy court approval to sell its Enterprise Solutions division, a deal that will lead to more job cuts than initially indicated.

Avaya, based in New Jersey, won approval from a bankruptcy judge in Delaware this afternoon to buy the division for $915 million, Bloomberg News reported.

On Monday, officials with the companies said that Avaya planned to keep about 75 percent of the division's workers. But that's of the division's global workforce, which was about 8,000 people at the beginning of the year.

In North America, Avaya expects to keep about 60 percent of the division's workers,  Nortel spokesman Pat Cooper said today. The percentage is higher in Europe, where labor laws restrict layoffs.
 
The Enterprise division's top executive, Joel Hackney, is based at Nortel's Research Triangle Park campus, where the company still has about 1,850 workers. Nortel officials have declined to comment how many RTP workers are part of the Enterprise division.

The Avaya deal is expected to be completed later this year. Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January and has been selling its parts to repay creditors.

A federal bankruptcy judge today rejected Verizon's bid to block Nortel Networks from selling a division for $915 million.

Avaya, based in New Jersey, agreed Monday to buy Nortel's Enterprise Solutions business. But Verizon, a major user of Nortel products and services, objected to the sale, saying Avaya's refusal to assume contracts it has with Nortel could jeopardize communications systems of Verizon business customers, including various government agencies.

Following a bankruptcy hearing in Delaware this morning, however, Judge Kevin Gross overruled Verizon's objection and ordered that a hearing to approve the sale proceed, the Associated Press reported. Gross is expected to rule on the sale later today.

Joel Hackney, the top executive at Nortel's Enterprise division, is based at the Canadian company's Research Triangle Park campus, where it employs about 1,850 workers.

Avaya is expected to keep about 75 percent of the Enterprise division's employees. The deal is expected to be completed later this year.

Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January and is selling its parts to repay creditors.

Bankrupt Nortel Networks selected a winning bidder for its Enterprise Solutions business, a step that will help decide the future for hundreds of local employees.

The bad news is that the deal is likely to mean additional layoffs at Nortel. The Canadian company still employs about 1,850 at its Research Triangle Park campus, down from a peak of more than 8,000 at the beginning of this decade.

The telecommunications equipment maker today agreed to sell its Enterprise unit to New Jersey-based Avaya for $915 million. The deal still requires approval from the bankruptcy court and antitrust regulators and could face resistance from other bidders.

Avaya isn't ready to discuss specifics, but does expect to retain about 75 percent of the Enterprise division's employees, said spokeswoman Lynn Newman.

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.