📢 [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.
Hopefully things will get ironed out.
Not an ancient user but been an NI user for a little while now and not long after I bought in I could see things that really wern't good and not heading in a good direction. The whole NA thing causing many people massive headaches and support being extremely slow in some cases have been majors.
There's been some great dev threads, but it seems things that were going to be looked into, NI just fell silent on. There were a number of recurring discussions about offline use / activation and installers hosted by NI . To NI's credit the latter was put in place but crickets on the other.
I don't like the subscription model at all and I'm glad NI didn't force that on those of us in this boat. People have every right to state what they think including expressing concerns about activation without being told they're panicking. This situation, however it turns out, would be much less concerning if we were assured of some type of activation for those who have full licenses. We also don't need to be told that stupid overworn cliche "our sky is falling"
Again, hope something good comes out of all this for NI.
Iv'e just recently bought quite a bit of Ni product since last year. Hoping they figure it all out. 😀
Many of us are invested indirectly in the company through our software and hardware purchases, why not offer actual ownership where we become shareholders (by issuing a limited number of stocks) and supporting the company and this community? Having certain perks as a stockowner such as early access or discounts could make this very interesting.
Some users were pointing similar things even at the old forum but nobody was aware or interested at that time and it’s ok. NI forum isn’t the best place for aware people about how wrecked seem the strategy and roadmaps.
Obviously this situatuion now is sad and lots of NI employees (who maybe were trying to warn the management themselves) will be placed at hard position at this very moment. My best wishes for all of them and for the brand itself.
In that expeculation/wishful thinking field… let’s hope for someone with enough money to “Captain the boat to safe port” gets onboard in this 90 days period and then NI could part to newer waters for amazing adventures…
Peace.
There is the possibility this will end with a new ownership that finally understands its customers and will deliver the service, support and product updates we all want and hope for. In the meantime my thoughts go out to @Matthew_NI , @Jeremy_NI , @Kaiwan_NI , @timrae_NI and everyone else working there for all the uncertainty they must endure right now.
Interesting, so the NI rebrand was nothing of the sort, and this does not affect Plugin Alliance/Brainworx/Izotope? just the original NI company and brand. Plugin Alliance have already made a statement.
Moral of the story, never trust anything that comes out of Francesco HQ.
I think that it will take weeks to have official news, probably more than that considering the data involved and the task of getting new investors involved.
I think this would have been better threated with a more "strictly restricted" policy, since this will affect the brand and drive sales during and after the preliminary insolvency, and of course damage the brand, at least temporarily.
What I/we can do meanwhile?
Lets stay in touch,
G.
It wasn't that long ago 2022, that Soundwide expanded by incorporating iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx then a year later restructured w/layoffs. Then "Soundwide" magically goes poof, gone.. a "new logo" was revealed and NI becomes the official name and now this? How? Was this the plan all along? Make it make sense considering that order of operations in such a short time. So is Francisco Partners the beneficiary, the reason or victims of a bad investment? Being they also dabble w/MUSE, KOBALT and a few companies in the computer parts and accessories (NZXT, Corsair..etc..). This one is a head scratcher… Then you realize that while they're an "independent firm" (Co-Presidents Ezra Perlman & Deep Shah,David Golob (CIO)), the Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs Asset Management hold minority investments in the firm's management company. 😡
@Jojo123 , I deleted your question/comment as part of a thread clean-up. But to attempt to answer your question then when I merge threads then the forum software appear to be merging things depending on time stamps. So when merging threads then possibly some comments are dropped into the main thread at earlier places than time of merging which, because not appearing where you expect it to be, might make it look as if it is not there. This of course is confusing but nothing that I can do about it. It is also confusing for me and I may shortly or permanently miss that some comments needs removing after the merge. I try to cleanup as best I can (when not being distracted by other stuff 🤔) but I of course can miss things - sorry about that…
Thank you for the thread, read it yesterday evening and should have come here directly instead of reading the panic on other forums.
That being said, the link was provided to the single product installer linked to your account, thanks for that, might do a backup just for the peace of mind, even tho I understand the proper activation will still need ni access.
I switched in june 25 from a 360 subscription to a komplete 15 ultimate. Do I understand the things correctly by assuming that once a product is activated, it doesn't need internet anymore outside of updates or re-installation ? (I thought that ni access needed to call home every 90 days, but maybe I'm mixing things up with other online licensing products) So if something goes wrong, restoring a full system image backup should save the day ? I know there's time to think about that, but if I can get that question out of my head, it would be nice.
All in all, my sincere support to the NI staff, to the people actually building the things that inspired so many people in those last decades, let's hope the human grinder will not be the favorite tool to fix the situation by management levels. I know that idea isn't sadly as comforting as it sound or we want it to be, been there, done that kinda. But at least I hope for those that may sadly take a hit, that the NI line on the resume will help you show them in other structures how bad of a decision they made by letting go the people who actually care about what is still a cornerstone of the computer aided music production.
Do I understand the things correctly by assuming that once a product is activated, it doesn't need internet anymore outside of updates or re-installation ? (I thought that ni access needed to call home every 90 days, but maybe I'm mixing things up with other online licensing products)
From what I have read then general consensus is that once you have installed your products and activated them using Native Access and you leave things on computer as is including N.A. (meaning no installation or updating of anything and no uninstall of N.A. or NTKDaemon) then you should be good to go without internet access (as long as you do not start N.A. ?). I have not read anything about any phone home every 90 days , but I have not used N.I. products offline for as long a period either.
So if something goes wrong, restoring a full system image backup should save the day ? I know there's time to think about that, but if I can get that question out of my head, it would be nice.
If your backup and backup software is up to the task and OK and everything on the computer is the same including all hardware then as far as I know then things should work when you reload from your backup without re-activation. I have reloaded from backup a number of times and never had any problems of that kind. In fact I have used backups where stuff was activated to go back and deactivate when a product of some make required deactivating from within installation to not loose an activation when activation numbers are limited.
But I always advice people to test their backups also to get confirmed what works and what do not.
.
On the subject of updates (and 'Preliminary Insolvency') then someone at NI still works because I just had three more updates for the effects in Native Access , this is from Vari Comp , but there is the same for 'Enhanced EQ' and 'Passive EQ' as well :
@manu404 I think @PoorFellow is correct. I've had 2 systems with K14 UCE offline for months. I set up a new Mac Studio about half way through last year. Once I got everything settled (which took a few months more) I took it offline. My older Mac was taken offline as well. There's been no requirements to go online and just as well, as I have a very flakey internet lately. Anyway, in the Eula somewhere I remember there was definitely the provision made that once everything was installed and activated you could go offline. It was one of the things I took particular notice of as I'm NOT a fan of a mandatory internet connection in order for your software to work. That alone for me would be a deal breaker from the get go.
As for backups, obviously peoples experiences here might vary, but the official word is that backups of any sort are not recommended. Im talking about apps which are typically installed on the internal system drive. Libraries which by far make up the bulk of storage space needed, and which many of us use on external drives, can be copied/moved around but will still need to go through NA to be activated, or relinked up.
@PoorFellow thats good. Any sign of life like that is better than dead silence.
Thanks @Jojo123 and @PoorFellow for your replies ! I can only second that an untested backup is not a trustworthy backup, and appreciate too the specific EULA criteria clearing the matter. I didn't consider restoring a backup of parts "going dark", at least from NI for whom I have confidence in the long term (even in this situation), but will definitively do an "offline" test this w-e and make sure at least NI products are working after a restore, without a need to go back online. Thanks !
