Dish’s Ergen Said to Discuss T-Mobile Deal With Deutsche Telekom

Dish Network Corp.’s Charlie Ergen recently contacted Deutsche Telekom AG to say he is interested in a future acquisition of its T-Mobile US Inc. unit, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Ergen, who made the approach after Deutsche Telekom’s talks to combine T-Mobile with Sprint Corp. broke down last month, hasn’t made any formal offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the conversations were private. He has told Deutsche Telekom -- which also received an offer from France’s Iliad SA -- that he’d be open to the idea in the coming months, they said.