Clearwire Picture Cloudy

But if Wall Street is going to pin its hopes on a high-profile IPO, Clearwire is an unlikely hero. For all the promise that WiMax and Craig McCaw can dangle in front of investors, there are more than enough risks involved in this company to give investors serious pause.

First of all, there are those investor-friendly financials: Since it was founded, Clearwire has brought in revenue of $149 million and racked up an aggregate net loss of $459 million. In other words, the company has spent 4 dollars for every dollar it's made.

But the big issue facing Clearwire involves its founder: It's not enough to know that Craig McCaw is backing Clearwire. The important question is which Craig McCaw is it? Because there seem to be two, and they are very different.

The first Craig McCaw is the stuff of legend. In the 1980s, when a federal lottery granted cellular licenses, McCaw and his brothers realized they could buy m4any of the granted licenses at a discount to their true market value.

The McCaws borrowed heavily and sold stock to raise money to build a cellular empire before the phone giants woke up to the opportunity. A decade later, AT&T (T Quote) bought McCaw Cellular for $13 billion.

This same Craig McCaw became a key investor in Nextel in 1995, and the company's value increased 15 times over during the next five years. The company merged in 2004 with Sprint, creating what is now McCaw's chief rival in the WiMax sector, Sprint Nextel .