NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hewlett-Packard Co. will change its New York Stock Exchange trading symbol to "HPQ" from "HWP," effective Monday, when the company expects to have completed its buyout of Compaq Computer Corp.

The transaction, which earlier this week stood up to a legal challenge by dissident company director Walter Hewlett, will be the largest ever in the information technology industry.

Executives of HP (HWP: up $0.36 to $17.22, Research, Estimates) and Compaq (CPQ: up $0.22 to $10.87, Research, Estimates) have characterized the deal as a "merger of equals," even though HP is effectively acquiring all of Compaq's assets in a stock swap currently valued at roughly $18.5 billion.

"Our new trading symbol is a tribute to the contribution of both companies as we come together to build the new HP," Carly Fiorina, HP's chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

The two companies said they expect to seal the deal on Friday and be working as a combined entity by next Tuesday.

Earlier this week, a judge in Delaware dismissed Walter Hewlett's legal challenge to the deal.

Hewlett, the son of one of HP's co-founders, had waged a bitter proxy fight against it, arguing that it was not in the best interest of shareholders. After the court decision, Hewlett agreed to stop trying to block the deal.

His lawsuit stemmed from allegations that HP executives had misrepresented the financial impact of the transaction and that they improperly pressured Deutsche Bank's asset management arm to vote in favor of it.

Some of those allegations had drawn the attention of federal regulators and legal officials.

The Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York each launched its own investigation into the events surrounding the HP shareholder vote.

A source told CNNfn that the SEC had ended its inquiry. Sources at the U.S. Attorney's office would not comment.

The executives of the combined company will need to live up to some lofty promises. When they pitched the deal to investors, they said it ultimately will lead to $2.5 billion in annual cost savings and result in a 12 percent increase in earnings.

It also will result in the loss of at least 15,000 jobs out of a combined work force of 150,000 during the next two years.

Although much of the focus during the past several months has been Hewlett's efforts to block the deal, both companies have been planning the integration of their vast operations and are expected to begin revealing some of those details next week.

Sanford Bernstein on Thursday upgraded its rating on HP's shares to "outperform" from "market perform" and set a price target of $24. The firm told its clients that while the merger has material integration risks, it believes they are more than fully discounted in the stock.