Communications and network equipment maker Avaya has filed for a $1bn initial public offering (IPO).
The company is hoping to use the proceeds to, among other things, "pay down certain long-term indebtedness", it said in a statement. Avaya did not confirm how many of its shares it intends to sell.
Although one of the biggest players in the market, Avaya’s 2010 financial figures revealed revenue of just over $5bn and losses of $874m. It long-term debt stood at $5.9bn as of September 30th, 2010.
Back in 2009 Avaya won the bidding war to acquire Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions Business. The firm paid $900m in cash for the bankrupt firm’s business. Avaya used to be part of Lucent Technologies before being spun out in 2000 and going public as Avaya Communications. The firm was then taken private again in 2007 when it was acquired by private equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners for $8.2bn.
It’s been a busy few weeks for the communications sector. In May Microsoft acquired VoIP firm Skype in a $8.5bn deal, its biggest ever acquisition. Avaya recently announced it had upgraded its SMB platform, called IP Office, to offer integration with legacy Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) products.
Avaya’s rival Polycom recently announced a trio of new products, including the EagleEye Director. The hardware/software combination features dual cameras, voice-triangulation and face finding technology. Earlier this month Polycom joined forces with a number of services providers to create a consortium that it hopes will drive telepresence and video conferencing adoption in businesses through openness and interoperability.
