Olympus has had a bad year, to put it bluntly — it was revealed that the company lost over two billion dollars due to bad investments and tried to cover it all up. Despite all the troubles, however, the company might be getting some assistance from some powerful companies. German publication Der Spiegel is reporting that at least three companies are bidding to form partnerships with the strugglng camera-maker (who is also the world's biggest maker of endoscopes). President Hiroyuki Sasa indicated that both Sony and Fujifilm are interested, as well as medical systems company Terumo and a number of other unnamed companies. Olympus is looking to make a decision on a potential partnership by next month, but there's no indications yet as to what these partnerships might entail. While Olympus may not be out of the woods yet, a partnership would certainly help the company have a fighting chance.