** Shares of Diamond Offshore Drilling DO.N rise 4.5%
to$14.56 premarket
** Oilfield services firm Noble Corp NE.N to buy DO in
cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.59 billion
** Noble to pay $15.52 per Diamond Offshore share, of which
$5.65 will be in cash and rest in NE shares
** Offer price represents 11.4% premium to DO's closing
price on Friday
** Deal expected to close in Q1 2025
** As of last close, DO stock is up 7.2% YTD
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru)
((Srivastava.Vallari@thomsonreuters.com;))