Olympus Corp. is continuing talks with Sony Corp., Terumo Corp. and Fujifilm Holdings Corp. about possible tieups as the struggling camera maker seeks to raise capital in the aftermath of an accounting fraud.

There's a 50-50 chance Olympus will choose Sony as a partner, and odds are that similar firms, including Terumo, may invest in Olympus, Chairman Yasuyuki Kimoto, 63, said Monday.

Forming an alliance with Panasonic Corp. is "less likely," while the door is "still open" for Fujifilm, he said.

The new Olympus management team, led by the former banker at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., is considering alliance offers from the four companies after the revelations of the accounting fraud wiped about $4 billion off its market value. The stock, which plunged 59 percent in 2011, has recovered by more than 10 percent since Kimoto's team won shareholder approval April 20.

"We need some sort of capital increase rather quickly," Kimoto said at Olympus headquarters in Tokyo. The discussions probably will continue for at least two more months, and the company plans to make a decision by the end of the year, he said. Olympus, he said, needs to find "a partner, or some partners."

Olympus restated earnings last year, taking a $1.3 billion cut in total equity, after admitting it paid inflated fees on takeovers and overpaid for three Japanese firms to conceal past investment losses. Net assets fell to ¥46 billion as of Sept. 30 from ¥151 billion reported in the previous quarter, company filings show.

The company also is considering funding through a public share sale, President Hiroyuki Sasa said last month. Forgoing an alliance would allow Olympus to pursue a business strategy independently, while a tieup may help accelerate growth in its camera and medical businesses, Sasa said. He said ¥50 billion is a "rough guideline" for how much the company may raise.

Founded in 1919 as a microscope and thermometer business, Olympus is the world's biggest maker of endoscopes. It controls about 75 percent of the global market for the instruments, which let doctors look inside the body to help detect diseases such as colorectal cancer.

Olympus made its first camera in 1936 and first "gastrocamera," a predecessor to the modern-day endoscope, in 1950, according to the company's website.

The medical unit is Olympus' biggest profit generator, accounting for ¥113 billion of operating income in the year that ended March 31. The company's imaging systems unit, which makes Olympus PEN cameras, lost ¥18 billion during the year.

The company is cutting 2,700 jobs, about 7 percent of its workforce, by March 2014, it said in June. Most of the jobs being eliminated are in overseas manufacturing, Sasa said last month.