According to insolvency documents, Berlin-based Native Instruments GmbH (also parent to iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx) is in preliminary insolvency proceedings. This is devastating news for one of the biggest brands in music-making technology.
Prof. Dr. Torsten Martini is listed as a preliminary insolvency administrator for the company (“vorläufiger Insolvenzverwalter”), which means he would be responsible for restructuring. (I can confirm his involvement, in addition to what’s on the document.) Without too much speculation, that means NI’s various assets will be sold off in some form — now a process that’s out of the hands of NI executives and owners.
(Since 2021, Francisco Partners had a majority stake in NI and remains the parent company. There’s probably more to say about how NI got here — both as part of industry trends and its own unique story — but that can wait. Most pressing seems the mystery of how a massive parent company let this happen to a company they own.)
The knock-on effects of this are potentially huge. Users of Maschine, Komplete, and Traktor are invested in integrated hardware workflows. Reaktor and Kontakt are ecosystems of their own for many development houses. Partner deals are impacted. (I noticed Akai quickly added sound content from Spitfire for its MPC line last week.) So many users poured time into Reaktor creation. And every single product across the stable you know means something to someone daily. So seeing how this unfolds will be important.
Employees should be supported in the short term, but I know this is going to be a hard time for NI operations and people. Here’s hoping for better times for NI employees and tools past this transition. This is also not a great omen for the rest of the industry, to state the obvious.
I know this will also raise concerns for NI product owners, for the time you’ve invested in tools from Kontakt to Reaktor and beyond. So I’ll do the best to relay those implications in the coming months as they become clear. We’ll have to see how the company’s current “Soundwide” state (with iZotope and the others) might be broken up.
For all the ups and downs, you’ve given us some incredible tools, NI. And I have so many memories with NI staff, past and present. So I do hope whatever happens to NI’s business structure, that the instruments and talent do find a good home.
I’ve reached out to NI for comment, but have not yet received a response.