Alibaba founder Jack Ma pays $23M for $28K-acre estate in New York's Adirondack Mountains

The co-founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba has paid $23 million for a 28,000-acre private estate in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

A spokesman for Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tells The Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/1eLLsjw ) that he bought the sprawling property in the Franklin County town of Santa Clara principally for conservation purposes, but also plans to use the estate as an occasional personal retreat.

The property known as Brandon Park includes a nearly 10-mile stretch of the St. Regis River, trout streams, woodlands and several homes and guest cabins. The estate in the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park was formerly owned by members of the Rockefeller and du Pont families.

The property has been owned since 1999 by Brandon Park LLC.

Ma is executive chairman of Alibaba Group, the world's biggest e-commerce company by sales volume.