Private equity-backed Avaya Inc plans to file for a $1 billion initial public offering as early as this week, marking the latest in a rash of technology sector IPOs, according to a Wall Street Journal story.

The offering could value the maker of telecommunications equipment at $5 billion or more, according to the Tuesday story which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Avaya declined to comment.

Avaya was taken private in 2007 through a $8.3 billion purchase by a private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and TPG Inc. Silver Lake and TPG were not immediately available for comment.

Underwriters involved in the IPO are Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse Group, according to the story.

Barclays, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse declined to comment while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were not immediately available for comment.

In 2000, Avaya was spun off from Lucent Technologies and was traded on the New York Stock Exchange until its 2007 takeover. Lucent, itself a spin-off from AT&T Inc, is now a part of Alcatel-Lucent .

If the Avaya IPO does go ahead it would follow a host of technology companies that have filed to go public recently or have gone public.

Chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Holdings had a weaker than expected debut when it went public late last month but LinkedIn shares more than doubled on their first day of trading on May 19, surpassing many expectations.

High-profile daily deals site Groupon Inc filed for an IPO just last week.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Clare Baldwin and Megan Davies; Editing by Derek Caney and Tim Dobbyn)

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