Jun. 12-- Atlanta travel reservations company Worldspan could be in early merger talks. 

Worldspan is in preliminary discussions with Cendant, a New York travel and real estate company, just as Cendant nears an acquisition of Galileo, another travel distribution company, according to media reports. 

Worldspan provides booking systems to travel agents and airlines and powers name-your-own-price site Priceline.com and travel agent newcomer Orbitz.com, among others. 

Worldspan and Cendant both declined to comment on the talks, reported in The Wall Street Journal. 

A Cendant bid would be the second attempt at a part of Worldspan this year. Galileo, which competes with Worldspan and is based in Chicago, offered to buy TWA's stake in Worldspan for $220 million during TWA's bankruptcy auction in March. 

Worldspan also had occasional merger talks with Amadeus, another computer reservations firm, in the late 1990s. 

Worldspan, which employs nearly 2,000 workers in Atlanta, was created in 1990 when Delta, Northwest and Trans World Airlines combined their scheduling and booking distribution systems. The airlines each owned a piece of Worldspan; American Airlines took TWA's stake when it acquired the smaller airline this year. 

A spokesman for Delta declined to comment on the Worldspan reports. Delta has said before that it doesn't view its Worldspan stake a core holding and may eventually consider selling it. 

Cendant owns the Avis car rental agency and Ramada Inn hotel franchise, as well as other travel brands. A buyout of Worldspan and Galileo would move Cendant closer to a distribution source for its brands. Cendant could also consider Worldspan desirable because it processes more Internet travel bookings than its rivals. 

If Cendant succeeded in buying Galileo and Worldspan, the combined entity would become the leading global distribution system in the nation and equal competitors Amadeus and Sabre internationally. 

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