Steve Case, the former Hono-lulu resident who built America Online into one of the Internet's major companies, has boosted his ownership stake in Maui Land & Pineapple Co. by purchasing $10.2 million more of its shares.

Case, 47, bought 341,404 shares of the Kahului-based company on Nov. 17 for $30 each, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The seller wasn't disclosed.

Case increased his holdings as the company's largest stockholder. He now owns 47.5 percent of Maui Land & Pineapple's common stock, or about 3.47 million shares.

Maui Land & Pineapple owns 28,600 acres on the Valley Island, where it operates its primary businesses, growing pineapple on about 6,000 acres and operating Kapalua Resort. It also manages the largest private nature reserve on Maui, the 8,661-acre Pu'u Kukui Watershed Preserve.

Case has spent about $53.8 million on Maui Land & Pineapple's shares since mid-1999.

Case's other Hawai'i holdings include Kaua'i's Grove Farm Co. Earlier this month he quit the Time Warner Inc. board, five years after overseeing a failed $124 billion combination with America Online.

Shares of Maui Land & Pine closed at $33.50 in American Stock Exchange trading yesterday.