Native Instruments acquired by inMusic Brands, parent of Akai and Moog
Native Instruments acquired by inMusic Brands, parent of Akai and MoogPost date:8 May 2026Reading time6 minutesShare this post via
Written by Hemant Khatri
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Native Instruments has been acquired by inMusic Brands, the parent company behind Akai Professional, Moog Music, Alesis and Denon DJ. The Berlin software giant signed the definitive agreement on May 7, 2026, during the Superbooth trade fair. It might also end the three months of preliminary insolvency proceedings. Crucially, the deal has put iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx into the inMusic fold. This marks probably the largest structural shift the music technology sector has seen this century.
Native Instruments had been carrying roughly £250 million in debt against annual revenue near £25 million. This balance sheet stemmed from the leveraged buyout era under Francisco Partners. Now inMusic absorbs the entire Native Instruments portfolio. That includes the Kontakt sampling engine, Maschine, Traktor, and the NKS integration standard. The Berlin software set joins a hardware-rich conglomerate that already controls the leading DJ and beat-making brands.
Read the complete statement from Nick Williams, CEO of Native Instruments group.
From Berlin pioneer to debt trap
Native Instruments spent its first two decades as a true Berlin pioneer. Founders Stephan Schmitt and Volker Hinz launched the company in 1996. They then released Reaktor, Kontakt and the Maschine hardware-software hybrid that would define modern sample-based production. That run ended when institutional capital arrived. First, EMH Partners put in €50 million in 2017 and took majority ownership by 2020. Then Francisco Partners stepped in with a majority stake in January 2021. The new owner accelerated the consolidation play.
Under Francisco Partners, the team rapidly snapped up iZotope in March 2021. Plugin Alliance and Brainworx then followed in April 2022. Crucially, the umbrella brand Soundwide launched later that year to unify the catalogue. However, it failed to land with the market. By June 2023, the company retired the Soundwide name and folded everything back under the Native Instruments identity.
The 2026 insolvency proceedings
The leveraged buyout model still demanded debt service the company could not generate. By late 2023, financial filings showed the £250 million debt load against £25 million in annual revenue. Then in late 2025, the European Commission cleared a proposed acquisition by Bridgepoint Group and Bain Capital Credit. But the deal collapsed in early 2026 after the investors walked away. They cited concerns about debt service in the new high-rate environment.
That collapse left Native Instruments with no path forward. The Berlin entity entered preliminary insolvency proceedings on January 27, 2026. The Charlottenburg District Court then appointed Prof. Dr. Torsten Martini of GÖRG as provisional insolvency administrator. CEO Nick Williams and his management team stayed in place for day-to-day operations. Still, every significant financial move now needed Martini’s approval.
The inMusic playbook and the NKS prelude
inMusic Brands runs on a clear acquisition-and-turnaround playbook under CEO Jack O’Donnell. First, he bought the assets of Numark in 1992. He then took over Alesis from bankruptcy in 2001, and acquired Akai Professional’s musical instrument division in 2005. In 2023, inMusic also added Moog Music to secure an analog synthesis foothold. Each acquisition followed the same pattern. Keep the brand identity, centralize engineering, and run the business for long-term stability over short-term flips.
Crucially, the 2025 NKS Hardware Partner Program already foreshadowed this deal. Native Instruments opened its proprietary integration standard to third-party manufacturers at NAMM 2025. Akai Professional and M-Audio (both inMusic brands) were first in line. Akai’s MPK controllers and M-Audio’s Oxygen series got deep screen-based integration with over 2,000 NKS-compatible instruments. The MPC then also got specialised expansions curated by NI’s sound design team.
What changes for producers and DJs
The strategic logic is straightforward. Native Instruments built the industry-standard software ecosystem. Meanwhile, inMusic owns the industry-standard hardware ecosystem. Now the two sit under one roof, with NKS as the connective tissue.
For producers, the immediate read is the Maschine vs MPC question. Both are pad-based production systems. Both have devoted communities. Notably, both are now owned by the same company. NI sound libraries are already natively formatted for the MPC platform. The next logical step is full Kontakt integration on the MPC standalone. That move would let users load the world’s deepest sample libraries on hardware without a computer.
DJ-side, the upside is just as significant. Traktor Pro has lacked dedicated hardware for years. With Denon DJ and Rane now under the same parent, a high-end Traktor controller becomes a real possibility. Plus, iZotope’s mastering algorithms could land inside Rane and Denon DJ mixers as built-in real-time enhancement.
The Berlin office and the workforce
Native Instruments employs over 400 staff at its Kreuzberg headquarters. That makes it one of Berlin’s biggest tech employers. The insolvency phase introduced real uncertainty. Still, German law protected salaries short term. But long-term job security depended on the buyer.
inMusic’s history points to a two-track outcome. Engineering and R&D teams for the software brands likely stay intact since the value sits in the technical talent. Meanwhile, marketing, admin and hardware engineering roles often consolidate at inMusic’s Cumberland, Rhode Island headquarters. After Magix’s failure and the SoundCloud restructuring in 2025, this acquisition keeps a vital piece of the Berlin music tech scene alive.
Community concerns and the Moogification fear
Not everyone is celebrating. Jack O’Donnell has a reputation as a polarising operator. Some on Reddit and the Native Instruments community forums fear “Moogification”: a perceived shift toward mass-market products at the expense of boutique quality. Plus, the Maschine vs MPC question also remains open. Will inMusic continue developing two competing pad-based platforms, or eventually consolidate one?
Still, the alternative to the inMusic deal was almost certainly liquidation or a piece-by-piece fire sale. Kontakt is the backbone of the entire third-party sampling industry. Selling that engine to a non-music entity would have ended the cross-platform compatibility thousands of developers depend on. Notably, inMusic preserves that ecosystem.
