Toshiba Corporation’s failure in sealing a deal to sell its chip unit by the deadline of Thursday has raised doubts over tech giant’s ability to plug the holes in its balance sheet in time. The beleaguered Japanese conglomerate confirmed that it tried its best to seal a deal but failed to come to an agreement with any of the interested parties.

However, the conglomerate hasn’t lost hope. It is continuing to pursue talks with three suitors, a consortium led by Western Digital, and groups led by Bain Capital and Foxconn.

Lee Kyu-jin, a senior analyst with Ebest Investment & Securities, noted that Toshiba is facing an increasing competition from rivals like Samsung Electronics in the field of NAND chips.

Commenting on the situation, Kyu-jin said, “Toshiba must build a factory in order to satisfy demand for 3D NAND, but right now Toshiba doesn’t have the money. Meanwhile, Samsung is showing drive in the 3D NAND market, including building a factory dedicated to 3D NAND.”

The sale of Toshiba’s chip unit, which is the world’s No. 2 producer of NAND chips, would like worth in the range of $17 billion to $18 billion.