Craig McCaw Net Worth

Net Worth  Net Worth: $1.79 Billion

Daniel Wanburg

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Craig McCaw was born on the 11th August 1949, in Centralia, Washington USA, and is a businessman best known to the world as the founder of McCaw Cellular Communications in 1987, which is now a part of the AT&T Mobility, and also owned mobile and fixed wireless broadband communications servicer Clearwire Corporation, from 2003 to 2013, when it was defunct. His career started in the 1980s.

Have you ever wondered how rich Craig McCaw is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that McCaw’s net worth is as high as $1.8 billion, an amount earned through his successful business ventures.


Craig McCaw Net Worth $1.79 Billion


Craig is the son of John Elroy McCaw and his wife Marion; Craig has three brothers. His father, John Elroy was in broadcasting business, owning Gotham Broadcasting Corporation, buying and selling radio and TV stations, and little by little expanding his broadcasting empire. Unfortunately, he then suffered enormous losses, and just before his death owned only one cable company, which he left to Craig while he was still in college, and so he soon started building his own kingdom, from a low base of 4,000 subscribers to five million.

In addition, he signed up for the lottery for cellular licenses held by FCC, and after acquiring a permit to start a cellular system on his own, he also bought licenses from other lottery winners and soon became the pioneer of the cellular phone industry in the USA. His McCaw Cellular developed slowly but successfully, acquiring several other businesses, LIN Broadcasting in 1980 and MCI Communications in 1986. After the initial success of the company, he caught the attention of other cellular companies, including AT&T, which resulted in a merger in 1994. However, the same year, AT&T bought the entire McCaw Cellular for $11.5 billion, which ten created a new company AT&T Wireless Group.

After the sale of McCaw Cellular, Craig invested in Nextel, which at the time was falling out, but Craig used his money and skills to turn around the company, and in four years along his brother, made Nextel into a highly reputable wireless company, having around 3.6 million customers across the USA. All this increased Craig’s net worth to a large degree. The same year he started another company, Nextel Partners, Inc, later sold to Sprint Nextel, Inc, and then in 2005 Sprint Corporation and Nextel were merged in a deal worth $36 billion.

Craig had several other ventures; back in 1994 he formed Teledisc with Bill Gates, but the enterprise fell through in 2003, then in 2004 he founded Clearwire Corporation, which is a provider of wireless broadband internet service, among many other businesses, but without major success.

Craig is also involved in politics, supporting several Republican candidates, including Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and George W. Bush.

He also sits on the board of several organizations, such as The Nature Conservancy, Friends of Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and Academy of Achievement, among others.

Regarding his personal life, Craig has been married to Susan Rasinski McCaw since 1998, with whom he has three children. Previously, he was married to Wendy Petrak – they divorced in 1997.

Alongside his wife Susan, Craig launched The Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation, through which they have donated to several philanthropic causes, including education, environment preservation, and international economic development projects as well. Furthermore, he was an integral part of the Free Willy Foundation, donating $2 million.

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