Nick Williams, CEO of Native Instruments today shared an update on the company’s ‘restructuring process’.
Native filed for “preliminary insolvency” in January of this year. This meant that a government-appointed administrator would be working with the company to protect debtors’ assets, and to see if changes could be made to enable a company to stabilize its financial situation.
Williams says that “business continues as usual,” but they are essentially looking for buyers:
We are currently in an active process to find new shareholders, with strong interest from multiple parties with deep roots in audio and technology. We see a clear path to achieve our goal to provide continuity for creators, customers, and partners.
As part of the restructuring process, Native Instruments GmbH and a number of our German entities will shortly be moving through expected legal steps, including transitioning from “preliminary insolvency” into formal “insolvency” proceedings where applicable. These are expected steps in the process we are working through.
It’s striking that NI has moved so quickly from dominating the world of electronic music and buying up other companies, to looking for buyers.
“The failure of Native Instruments is a complicated story, worthy of a full-length case study,” notes Music Trades Editor Brian T. Majeski, adding that “Misplaced growth expectations, poor product development, and a healthy dose of hubris surely contributed.”
Native’s products are still essential for many musicians, so the outcome of their insolvency will have a huge impact on the future of electronic music making.
Apple should buy them
I’d be happy with that. Maybe they could resurrect a few things that have fallen by the wayside. Reaktor for one
Great, last time that happened only mac users had access and windows users got dropped. (Alchemy)
Well it was either that or nothing
They won’t. Too many tentacles. From having to deal with NIs debt, figuring out what to do with hardware to maintaining the sprawling software (maintaining Kontakt alone with all the 3rd party instruments and users across Mac and PC at all levels. Camel audio and emagic were far more digestible purchases than this monster. Apple today is a consumer electronics company that has very manageable pro software applications on the side. They’ve maintained that by doing the complete opposite of Native Instruments. I don’t think buying the assets of a company that overindulged and overextend itself is in their wheelhouse (nor is it wise).
Nah, but Synthtopia should buy them!!!
I saw a video of the guy that started Brainworx say that NI decided they didn’t need any audio guys anymore so the hubris thing makes a lot of sense.
“The failure of Native Instruments is a complicated story”
Not really that complicated:
* taken over by private equity
* loaded up with debt and over-expanded, with massive fees to PE
* goes insolvent
Tale as old as time
Possibly true, but we don’t know the full story. Not to defend PE, but if you have a pension, mutual fund, or insurance, you are invested in it! Most PE is not that cut throat. Most have a goal to get steady returns from decent companies or real estate at a low enough risk to satisfy a pension or insurance fund manager, who doesn’t have time to F around. And then they need to be able to sell it for at least what it’s worth, so it’s not in their interest to destroy but to improve it. Of course there are opportunistic predators. But there are also funds that risk their own money betting on startups hoping for a win/win. And they get involved in helping improve those companies. PE exists because consumer savings banks were excluded from certain kinds of investments using our deposits and mortgages.
Not complicated for me. They made all my older NI software unusable with their “you can’t just re-install stuff” you physically own because of their goofy on-line registration nonsense.
Yeah this is really what I find worrying. You used to be able to just hold on to your serial numbers and re-install. If the company goes under I hope they have some solution for this problem. Otherwise people will end up being forced into cracks just to be able to use the tools they need and the custom presets they themselves created. That’s a lot of time investment, not to mention the financial investment.
It’s pretty wild when you consider how Kontakt has basically dominated the sample instrument category. There’s a better option now (Soundpaint), but that doesn’t help people who have spent thousands on sample libraries for Kontakt.
More like Native Dumbstraments!
Well – they had Reaktor and Kontakt. None of which have been updated to todays GUI-standards. They lived some years on content/libraries – but when you fail to improve your main reason for income you are doomed.
Personally I am hoping one of the major japanese companies steps in. Yamaha, Roland or Korg.
It’s all well and good to say kontakt never really got updated. Not with anything meaningful. But there’s still nothing out there that replaces it. Not because of the sampler but because of the content. Whoever acquires that content could make a good run at it
You are probably right there. However – Kontakt is a very usefull sampler that people mostly use for sample playback.
Yeah there are a few other options out there. Decent Sampler is on I’ve used. Pretty bare bones but a good community of libraries for it. But all have proprietary library formats. It’s not just Kontakt.
Most interesting is that the guys who make the opensource Surge XT synth are making a kontakt style sampler – Shortcircuit. That has some serious potential to be amazing
Yeah. Soundpaint pretty much mops the floor with Kontakt due to its vastly superior articulation tech and dynamic sample morphing. Still, tons of people own thousands of dollars/euros worth of libraries. Crazy
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2026/01/30/koda-next-generation-sampler-sneak-preview/
Clone
Roland desktop offerings are pretty atrocious – tiny fiddly interface, forced cloud subscription, massive unclear overlap between offerings. I love roland hardware ecosystem but don’t really see them as making any desktop software better ?
@Nikola
You can own Roland Cloud plugins outright with a lifetime purchase…..nothing “forcing” you to subscribe. You can buy them individually if you want…which is what I have done. I am enjoying my JD-800 plugin right now and that classic panel with all the buttons and sliders fills my screen since it is resizable. Your lack of knowledge makes me wonder if you have even used them.
I appreciate what you’re saying but anything in software that is “lifetime” I take with a pinch of salt
I own several Roland Cloud products and every time I go to use them, Roland won’t allow me to use them unless I launch Roland Cloud on the Internet and let it re-authorize. In other words, they force me to launch their sales portal every time I need to just quickly use an instrument. It’s awful, and it’s why I’m relying on other versions of Roland synths, like Softube’s 101 and Juno.
I am pretty sure their owners will continue being very wealthy…
And oddly, all I ever cared about from NI was their hardware.
Does this mean my NI products will be unusable?
Here we go again…
I expect InMusic/Akai to grab Kontakt. As far as I’m concerned everything else they made can DIAF.
Reaktor is incredible though. Seriously. It has such an amazingly deep library of user-created instruments and effects, many of which rival products being sold commercially (and are free, most of them, once you own Reaktor). So while I get what you’re saying, let’s not gloss over the fact that NI has created some products which have had major impact on the history of electronic music, and are still used today.
If I had the money I’d buy NI just so I could implement a feature into Reaktor allowing it to save synths made in it as stand-alone VSTs, AUs, LV2s, CLAPs, and maybe a few other formats.
That would be useful
The worst business move ever ^_^’
In the gaming space things like RPG Maker turn a profit so it might not be such a bad business move… but maybe OP just wants to make a platform for more plugin instruments, not profit.
I’m not sure who I would want to buy them. I hope NI, Izotope and PA don’t stay together. I also hope the prices (upgrades) become more reasonable. Akai worries me and I don’t see it totally making sense with the japanese. Really hope it isn’t fender! Not a lot of players with enough money for this.
Don’t care about NI stuff, but iZotope products, especially RX and Insight are something which can’t be lived without.
Selling this stuff would be tough specially now (war/inflation) as well as plenty competition. However I see the following to make most sense:
1) Kontakt & Komplete –
a) Muse Group has been aggressively acquiring legacy brands (like Hal Leonard and StaffPad). Adding the industry-standard sampler (Kontakt) fits their “platform-first” strategy perfectly.
b) Apple bought Emagic (Logic) and Camel Audio (Alchemy) to bolster its ecosystem. Buying the NI software library would essentially give them a monopoly on high-end virtual instruments for macOS users.
2) Maschine – Novation lacks a deep “production” software like the Maschine environment. Buying Maschine would give them a high-end flagship to compete with Akai.
3) Traktor – A&H Xone mixers, are the preferred hardware for Traktor users. Owning the software would allow them to create the ultimate “analog-feel” digital DJ ecosystem. They could compete with Alpha Theta and Serato.
4) iZotope & Plugin Alliance – Adobe has been slowly improving “Audition” but lacks “AI-powered” mixing and mastering tools. iZotope’s RX and Ozone technology have somewhat “one-click” solutions Adobe likes for its Creative Cloud suite.
Like so many posting on this topic, I was an early fan of NI predominantly for their SYNTHS!! FM7 was the first software synth I was able to really play with, and it really blew my mind. Though I splurged on Komplete 5 almost 20 years ago, I really only used FM8, Pro-53, and Massive a bit before my focus heavily shifted to Props Reason.
After reading about the impending collapse of NI, over the last month I’ve been diving back into Massive and Absynth, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised as I’ve reacquainted myself with both products. They both seriously rock. I’m sorry to see that NI won’t possibly make it as a company, but years earlier I was already sorry to see NI lessen or drop their support for their synths like they did.
I grew fed up with the lack of innovation from NI years ago. As a studio owner, I have invested in Komplete Multiple times over the years for various systems, and have been a user and supporter of native instruments since the days of generator, Spektral delay, and vokator.
I feel like they got lazy and pivoted from creating truly innovative tools to trying to sell us sounds. There is nothing wrong with that per se, but it is not what I imagine. The vast majority of original supporters got on board for. I sort of knew they were going in the wrong direction when they discontinued vokator and Spektral delay, then canned absynth… and every year, the Reaktor updates and marketing became less and less of a priority.
As for Kontakt, it truly is a great program. It has some annoying limitations, and the core sound set… It’s quite terrible by Today’s standards. But it’s a great program. I can see how a company would prioritize this product knowing it’s potential for monetization.
That does not excuse the incredibly poor support and lack of development on battery, the first sample based application. It also and more importantly, doesn’t excuse the lack of development for Maschine. I do not understand how Akai can provide massive updates so often, yet native instruments can only offer more sound packs. Don’t get me started on Traktor.
Last straw for me was the talk about subscription fees. I did a little math in my head and can tell you I have spent many thousands of dollars on updates over the years with made of instruments providing me diminishing returns as a user. No wonder they are going bankrupt.