Just weeks ahead of its initial public offering, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. tripled its net profit in the first quarter. The spotlight is on two of the company’s recent acquisitions, which forced Alibaba to reassess the value of some of its private assets. Commenting on the company’s decision to put a value on its private assets in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Zhaoyang Gu points out that the value of privately held assets is somewhat subjective because there is no liquid market for such assets…