Pity the guys who dreamt up two of Wall Street’s coolest tickers — DNA and BUD — both of which look set to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Genentech grabbed the three letters synonymous with biotechnology by being in on the ground floor of the gene revolution. Anheuser-Busch was lucky enough to have a beer brand known everywhere by one syllable. Now both look doomed.

Genentech faces a $43.7 billion bid from Roche for the 44 percent of the Californian biotech group that it doesn’t already own. Genentech is expected to succomb, albeit after a possibly sweetened offer. Anheuser has already agreed to a $52 billion takeover by InBev.

Their demise may take some of the fun out of stock trading – but investors shouldn’t despair. The thoughtful punter still has other options.

For example:

- BID for auctioneer Sotheby’s

- HOG for Harley-Davidson

- TAP for brewer Molson Coors

- JAVA for Sun Microsystems

- CAR for Avis Budget

- PZZA for pizza company Papa John’s

- BLUD for blood test group Immucor

- LUV for Southwest Airlines (after its Love Field airport in Dallas)

- LVB for Steinway Musical Instruments (after Ludwig van Beethoven)

- LIZ for Liz Claiborne

- PUB for Britain’s Punch Taverns

- WOOF for pet healthcare provider VCA Antech…does that take the biscuit?

And not forgetting the grandaddy of them all:

- T for AT&T (it stands for telephone, of course).

Genentech, meanwhile, will at least keep one thing when it becomes part of a Roche — an ultra-cool address at 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco.

(Photos: Reuters)

DRS Technologies on Friday said its $4 billion acquisition by Italian defense manufacturer Finmeccanica is on track and should close in the fourth quarter.

That statement from the American maker of defense electronics may finally lay to rest the speculation about the likelihood of another European company making a counter-bid for DRS.

Media reports had suggested that French defense electronics group Thales was considering a counter-bid for DRS. Despite DRS’s comments on Friday, don’t count Thales — or any of the European defense manufacturers — out yet.

Europe’s largest defense electronics company, Franco-German company EADS ( parent of Airbus), also wanted to counter-bid for DRS, but had said Finmeccanica’s offer was “too high.”

The Finmeccanica/DRS deal is expected to be just one of several acquisitions (or acquisition attempts, at the very least) by Europeans of U.S. defense companies, analysts have said.

U.S. defense spending — pegged at more than $500 billion for 2009 (excluding $100 billion for war-related costs) — is not expected to decrease in the next few years, regardless of who wins the presidential elections.

European companies looking to gain a presence in the U.S. defense market and get a piece of the defense budget — the world’s largest — are expected to target U.S. defense suppliers. DRS has already said it had received a higher offer from an unnamed foreign bidder and an expression of interest by a U.S. defense company.

And there is the parent company of French plane maker Dassault Aviation, which wants to acquire Alcatel-Lucent’s 20.8-percent stake in Thales.

Other possible targets include L-3 Communications, as well as Vought Aircraft Industries and Primus International — both of which were taken over by private equity firms who will eventually want an exit plan.