HONG KONG, Jan 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Ryan Cohen has been pressing Alibaba (9988.HK), for improvements since last August, per the Wall Street Journal. As the owner of an undisclosed stake, he wants the company to boast its share buybacks. There are similarities with cash-rich Apple (AAPL.O) where he owns roughly $800 million of stock. Alibaba is sitting on $48 billion of net cash as of September, up 4% since March. It confirms Alibaba’s emerging status as a mature company: revenue growth is forecast to almost halve to 10% by 2025, per Refinitiv. But the case for buybacks was stronger…