Coming off a rather exciting Oracle OpenWorld it would be nice to take a break. Too bad Oracle rivals aren't standing still.

On Friday, IBM took to the newswires to blast out that it, with partner ANTs, won a big Navy contract from Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. ANTS is a real-time database competitor to TimesTen. Oracle bought TimesTen last June.

The headline: Raytheon Selects IBM and ANTs Over Oracle. The deal covers Tivoli and Rational offerings as well the ANTs Data Server, say they.

The news should come as little surprise: IBM and ANTs have been quite chummy for some time. Database superstar Don Haderle, a former IBM Fellow, is now with ANTs, Burlingame, Calif.

ANTs CEO Joseph Kozak, engineering VP Rao Yendluri and other top execs all did stints at . . . . well you get the picture.

Last May in its SEC filings, ANTs disclosed that it and IBM were doing joint sales calls into large enterprises "although no formal agreement" was in place. The dynamic data duo was also bidding on a "significant project for the US Navy" being administered by a large defense contractor. There, Oracle has "been very competitive in its attempt to win the business. Well I guess we know what THAT deal was.

Also, that ANTs has an executive sponsor at IBM who facilitates cooperation. That sponsor is apparently Paul Rivot, director of database servers.

Given IBM Software's past behavior, we should probably be looking for an ANTs acquisition in the not-so-distant future.

And no, no one would comment on that last statement.