May 24 (Reuters) - Global Payments Inc GPN.N has held preliminary tie-up talks with Total System Services Inc TSS.N, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The companies also discussed a possible joint venture and other ways to partner up that may not include a full-blown merger, Bloomberg said.

Global Payments and Total System were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru; editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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