📢 [03/19] An update from Nick Williams, CEO of Native Instruments
Uh oh… 😐
According to an article by Create Digital Music (CDM), Native Instruments is currently undergoing preliminary insolvency proceedings:
To access and read insolvency documents:
*Native Instruments*
💡 What this means
❌ What this doesn't mean
(Snippets taken from Production Expert)
Articles / Timeline of events
Date
News
12-04-2025
The European Commission clears acquisition of Native Instruments Group by Bridgepoint and Bain Capital Credit(Unconfirmed: Deal apparently fell through and the insolvency is the result of that.)
01-27-2026
Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency | CDM
01-28-2026
Plugin Alliance says it is "business as usual" | CDM
01-29-2026
Statement from Nick Williams, CEO of Native Instruments
(Also available on ni-japan.jp)
03-19-2026
An update from Nick Williams, CEO of Native Instruments
I will continuously update this post as we learn more.
As per Jeremy_NI's post:
Any further updates will be shared through our official channels when appropriate.
I the meantime they will keep selling SW and HW with no notification or anything pinned on their socials or website, hoping to continue reaping in huge amounts of $$$ while pretending nothing is going on. You walk into you fav store, they sell you $5000 worth of NI gear , no "oh btw they are in insolvency, just thought I'd let you know before you drop you life savings on a product that looks to be discontinued" cutching
I wouldn't say private equity is bad. The wrong private equity can be. I was involved in a deal in 2024 with one PE selling to another. The first thought they got a great selling price. The PE firms that came in have just delivered the best year in the companies history, and probably the best year for its customers.
PE is never bad for the company doing the selling. These guys will make money regardless of how this shakes down.
At least this is starting to make a bit of sense to me now as to why they were dragging their feet on some stuff (Komplete Kontrol etc) for years now.
VP
Many have known this was coming for a while, in the dev community there were reasons cited by a number of devs I spoke with about investing in a "dead horse". Seems to be a lot of things that have happened in the background, change of hands, likely a lot of people ripped a lot out while it was still kicking but this company is far removed from the innovative and exciting company it was 10+ years back.
It is sad, I have invested a huge amount into the eco system and now have to make some tough decisions since this news will usually make things worse, no one wants to invest into a sinking ship.
Investors rarely get involved in the day-to-day dealings, and as much as I have been frustrated at times, there's finate resources, and finite budget, to complement a roadmap that is driven by sales potential, to new customers, not just current customers. I'd also add, a couple of product leads agree with what we've been asking for, but the business has other priorities, or again, less than infinite resources. But, I don't know. I'm just doing educated guesswork, and have a bit of knowledge of how these things work. I absolutely do want to see a positive outcome here, because I'm very invested in the ecosystem. I'll take survival over new features, as long as those in charge of product and development can remain so.
Yes - it's all guesswork.
But budgets are real. And lack thereof - makes it even more real.
TBH - Everything over there seemed "finite". Just enough resource to keep the lights on in certain areas.
In the end - we wanted one thing and the owners wanted another. Today is what happens…
All we can do is hope for the best but from what I know of PE and especially when the word "insolvency" is being thrown around - this won't be a "Business As Usual" thing here in 5 weeks with some new buyer.
There will be changes - some small and some very big (and/or permanent)
I just read that here https://www.reddit.com/r/NativeInstruments/s/5GKKbtKRtQ
Today's news - NI Insolvancy
https://cdm.link/ni-insolvency/
Hopefully Kontakt and sample libraries will survive due to the large third party support.
Oh I am sure they will, likely a company such as inBrand will take on the IP and slowly kill off what doesn't work for them. I suspect having a lot of hardware being produced and little in the new software development side as well as all these acquisitions that never panned out has not worked out so good. The problem is this news always hurts the brand because from a dev and user POV, who now has confidence to invest into an eco system when it can't maintain itself. Staff numbers have been obviously culled over the years and the focus you could see changed to invest more in adding support for 3rd parties instead of bolstering innovation and that has seemingly not progressed as well as planned, which is of no surprise. One thing seems clear, probably wouldn't count on any new hardware being released any time soon.
Heartbreaking if this is the end, but i'm holding on to the thought that things could be resolved somehow.
I'm quite invested in NI with 2 Maschine+, most of the expansions, Komplete etc and wondering if there needs to be an internet connection once in a while for them to keep working? Mine are both connected to the internet so checks for updates at startup. Is it safe to switch them on and turn the wifi off?
I wouldn't stress on that just yet. There are actual bug studios that rely heavily on Kontakt especially that can't simply have things stop working. THis doesn't mean the end of NI, it's more like the kids in charge are not making good decisions on how they spend their lunch money so the adults have to step in and take control, basically just putting a stop to the gross spending while not managing the business side properly.
I appreciate this doesn't mean NI is shutting down tomorrow and we immediately lose access, but it brings into question a very real issue that the "Stop Killing Games" movement aims to highlight. A company decides to end support for a product, or even worse, ceases trading, there's no legal reason compelling them to provide any form of contingency. People in here talking about "oh nothing bad can happen, big studios rely on it" - if Native Instruments vanishing meant Abbey Road Studios would close down, then Abbey Road Studios would close down. That's the unfortunate truth of it. And the reason why this shift to online only activation is a dangerous road.
I don't think NI is going to close down, may be some fat trimming and updates and new releases are generally put on hold indefinitely, but there is the very real possibility it eventually ceases altogether. Then what are you going to do? Nothing.
I would like to think someone internally manages to push forward contingency plans, but it's wishful thinking.
Does Maschine+ need wifi once in a while to work though as i'm wanting to use mine sooner than when this will be resolved?
That is the question really as i'm also keeping my hopes up for a solution?
"I don't think NI is going to close down, may be some fat trimming and updates and new releases are generally put on hold indefinitely, but there is the very real possibility it eventually ceases altogether. Then what are you going to do? Nothing."
Filing for insolvency is a serious matter and while I do not claim to have any understanding of German law - this appears to be way more than just "fat trimming" or restructuring or any number of other "strategic" things I have seen posted today.
Until the company themselves - makes a statement - assume this is not good the way it reads.
If it WAS good - we wouldn't need to be discussing it here today.
