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.

Fidelity Investments this week closed on a real-estate deal to acquire four offices formerly occupied by Nortel Networks in Research Triangle Park.

The Boston financial services company will renovate the buildings this fall and will consolidate its North Carolina operations at the facilities. The four-building complex, known as Nortel's Network Center, have 680,000 square feet.

Fidelity currently has employees in RTP and Cary, including in two former Nortel buildings that Fidelity had been leasing. The company closed on the buildings Wednesday.

Fidelity's operations in RTP include support for individual, employer and institutional clients. The site also has a retirement call center and a data center, requiring technology and IT employees.

Fidelity Investments, which five years ago announced plans to build a new campus in Research Triangle Park, is now seeking to purchase an existing office park that was once occupied by Nortel Networks.

The Boston mutual fund company is in negotiations to buy the Network Center, a four building complex that includes 680,000 square feet, said Fidelity spokesman Vincent Loporchio.

"We saw an opportunity to unite our workforce in a campus environment at a location we know and like," he said.

The deal isn't finalized, but could close within the next several weeks, Loporchio said.

Fidelity employs about 2,200 people at five different buildings in Cary and RTP, where it has technology, customer service and human resources operations. It also has a data center in the park.

Fidelity already leases two of the four buildings in the Network Center. Last year, the company signed a 10-year lease to occupy 220,000 square feet that it had been subleasing from Nortel.

A consortium of global telecommunications companies, including some with Triangle operations, have agreed to buy more than 6,000 technology patents from bankrupt Nortel Networks.

Nortel, which once employed about 10,000 people in Research Triangle Park, said today the telecom group will pay $4.5 billion for its patents.

The buyers group comprises Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion and Sony.

The consortium appears to have outbid Google, the search engine giant that had originally put in an opening bid of $900 million on Nortel's patents.

Nortel Networks is delaying a global auction on its technology patents by one week after seeing a surge of interest from potential bidders for the company's 6,000-some patents and pending patent applications.

The Canadian-based phone equipment maker, which once had a major operation in Research Triangle Park with about 10,000 employees and contractors, has put off the patent auction until June 27.

The patents are the last major asset for Nortel, which has been selling off business divisions since declaring bankruptcy in January 2009. Tech companies that have taken over Nortel units in RTP include Avaya and Genband.

Nortel has raised about $3 billion through asset sales to pay off its creditors, Bloomberg reported. The company has about 160 people left in RTP.

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.

Research in Motion is considering topping Google's $900 million bid for thousands of patents held by Nortel Networks, the telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

The maker of BlackBerry devices is considering whether to bid alone or make a joint bid, Bloomberg News reported, citing people close to the matter.

Google earlier entered a so-called stalking horse agreement with Nortel that set a minimum bid.

The portfolio includes about 6,000 patents and patent applications for wireless, data networking, high-speed Internet and other technologies.

Google has bid $900 million for thousands of patents held by Nortel Networks, the telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

The so-called stalking horse agreement essentially sets that price as the minimum, and Nortel will ask a bankruptcy court for permission to seek higher bids on its patent portfolio.

The portfolio includes about 6,000 patents and patent applications for wireless, data networking, high-speed Internet and other technologies.

Nortel was once one of the largest private employers in the Triangle, and many of its patents involve at least some work done at its Research Triangle Park campus.

A private auction for more than 4,000 technology patents owned by Nortel Networks is in its final weeks, representing that last major wave of asset sales for the bankrupt Canadian telecom.

Potential bidders for the patents, which are expected to fetch more than $1 billion, include hi-tech icons Apple, Google, Motorola and Research In Motion, the maker of the Blackberry smart phone.

Reuters news service reported today that some of Nortel's hottest patents relate to wireless communications technology known as 3G, 4G and LTE, or Long Term Evolution, which enable wireless broadband transmissions of video, movies and other data.