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.

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 executives, past and present, are lining up as creditors in in the company's bankruptcy case.

In all, the suits are seeking $25 million in pay and benefits, with half that amount being sought by ex-CEO Mike Zafirovsky who left the company in August.

But the top exec at the company's Research Triangle Park site will not get the prize for the most audacious claim.

Mike Zafirovski, the white knight CEO brought in to rescue Nortel Networks, resigned from the beleaguered company this morning, saying he had done all he could and it is time to move on.

Instead of revitalizing the onetime industry giant, Zafirovski watched the global telecommunications equipment maker lose traction against competitors. He finally had no choice but to guide the iconic
Canadian company into bankruptcy proceedings in January. As a sign of Nortel’s decline, Research Triangle Park site is down to 1,850 employees from a onetime peak of 8,500.

In a statement the company said it had reached a natural transition point for Zafirovski to step down. As the company winds down operations, the company's board of directors is being trimmed from nine seats to three, a move that ends the board tenure of Jim Hunt, the former governor of North Carolina.