Native Instruments file for insolvency...

[HM]

I'd be surprised if NI looks the same this time in a year from now.

Agree ,..

Another German company, Magix, went through same procedure, yes, 1-2 years, the most unprofitable was cut away, and then BorisFX swallowed some of their products also. I guess Samplitude etc.

A reduced team still work with Vegas Pro, future is uncertain, and then there is Sound Forge also still present, but seemingly not much development, more likely just for still having an audio-editor for the suite they try to keep it alive

I think NI is more of a mess than Magix was/is

The final cut would likely be in max 2-3 years when/if some reconstruction also fails

Been there, lost my E-mulator X3 software when Creative bought E-mu, and after a relatively short periods closed everything down, included the autorisation-server

Got my iZotope stuff on iLok ,.. just saved the installers

Plugin Alliance should be able to save on USB i heard ??

As for NI, like many others, I just regret having put to many of my eggs in the same kontakt-basket, and they will have a hard time now to rebuild the trust. So the death- spiral is kinda perfect storm. Developers are hitting for their own players also, for obvious reasons, like EW,.. UVI,...

It could very well be goodbye to NI, and just PA and iZotope that is having another chance, to maybe prove them self a future

[fedexnman]

Man this sukksss azzzzz lol .

[IvyBirds]

I don't think this company is going to survive. Depending on source, the debt load dumped on NI from the VC's is reportedly upward of $300 million...possibly more. That's a huge ask of potential buyers.

I agree NI isn't going to survive, might be a a few months or a few years, but they are dead man walking

I do think some of their products will however. They will be sold to another company

I actually think Arturia is a dark horse candidate to end up with Kontact, and perhaps others, and it's something they don't currently offer

Arturia would probably love to Kontact Massive, Absynth and others more so than Yamaha/Steinberg or UVI

[audiojunkie]

I don't think this company is going to survive. Depending on source, the debt load dumped on NI from the VC's is reportedly upward of $300 million...possibly more. That's a huge ask of potential buyers.

I agree NI isn't going to survive, might be a a few months or a few years, but they are dead man walking

I do think some of their products will however. They will be sold to another company

I actually think Arturia is a dark horse candidate to end up with Kontact, and perhaps others, and it's something they don't currently offer

Arturia would probably love to Kontact Massive, Absynth and others more so than Yamaha/Steinberg or UVI

They're a decent company. I could go for that.

[Sindikhate]

The only company that can do justice to NI is Yamaha/Steinberg. No one else.

Arturia has a totally different sound to NI and they will ruin every single piece of software NI has made if they change to their sound engine in future updates.

I have no idea where the $300m number came from but each single user from the 1.5m would have to pay up 200 bucks to save the company.

If they would start a gofundme or kickstarter and give a discount coupon worth the same money to use in NI/PA/Izotope products, in order to cover the debt I am paying for it and I am pretty sure most others will too. Saving the company, the products we have bought, and get something in return for the future for our trust.

[mixyguy2]

I have no idea where the $300m number came from

Some youtube goober playing the click bait game. Gee there's something new. It means nothing and should be ignored.

[VitaminD]

I have no idea where the $300m number came from

Some youtube goober playing the click bait game. Gee there's something new. It means nothing and should be ignored.

Many have speculated about what led to the company’s decline, but the best take we’ve seen comes from Music Trades Editor Brian T. Majeski, who calls Native Instruments as “the industry’s latest private equity casualty”.

In his newsletter, he shared his analysis of the company’s decline after it was acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners:

“After five years under the stewardship of Francisco Partners, the company that pioneered computer-centric music systems filed for bankruptcy protection in the Berlin courts on January 27.

The catalyst for the filing was a steep decline in sales, cumulative losses of €288 million ($339 million) accrued in 2023 and 2024, and looming maturities on approximately €262 million ($309 million) in debt.

The bankruptcy court has a mandate to keep Native Instrument intact as a viable business and they are likely to succeed. The company retains a valuable product portfolio that is used on 80% of the Top Ten Billboard tracks and has over 1.5 million registered users. However, there will be serious post-bankruptcy challenges.

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2026 ... tcy-court/

[Grizzellda]

My main concern is that the software products are maintained and modernized. The hardware stuff is great in my view and certainly worth investing in. Maybe the company will be sold, get new management.

And if they do, expect them to offer a subscription model, for constant revenue, then maybe this sort of thing won't occur again.

[IvyBirds]

The only company that can do justice to NI is Yamaha/Steinberg. No one else.

Arturia has a totally different sound to NI and they will ruin every single piece of software NI has made if they change to their sound engine in future updates.

I have thought quite a bit about this since the announcement

I initially thought Steinberg was the answer, but I no longer do. Steinberg will simply not keep Kontact development moving along or any of the Synths when they have the HALion Ecosystem and HALion isn't going anywhere

What they would do is merge Kontact and it's libraries into HALion. Same for Absynth, Massive, FM8 etc. Everything would be jammed into the HALion Sonic Player. While I love HALion I don't want Kontact to merge into it, or massive or Absynth or FM8

The same can be said for UVI with Falcon

Steinberg or UVI would just be buying NI to remove a competitor from the market place and move some of its IP and sample libraries into their existing products which already compete in that space

With Arturia since they don't have a modern sampler, Kontact wouldn't be competing with anything, it would just be a new product they would have and develop, Absynth, Massive, FM8 etc would also happily exist along side of Pigments and the synths in the V collection

[BBFG#]

VC could part out the plugins before bankrupting to use as a tax writ off.
Kind of a common scenario really.
Then maybe Kontakt can go on as the new company takes it over.
Others as well.
Just saying the death of NI could be the rebirth of their plugins under different companies.

[machinesworking]

The bankruptcy court has a mandate to keep Native Instrument intact as a viable business and they are likely to succeed. The company retains a valuable product portfolio that is used on 80% of the Top Ten Billboard tracks and has over 1.5 million registered users. However, there will be serious post-bankruptcy challenges.

This needs to be mentioned over and over again, since there's almost zero hyperbole to it.
No speculation, just what is likely to happen here.

[BBFG#]

So if it dies, it dies completely.
Got it.

Still could be sold off for pennies on the dollar though?

[digitalboytn]

The debt burden is the real problem because there is still real value in the product line...

I've been saying for a long time that NI had become too top-heavy and that's never good if you want to maintain a centre of balance...

That dicks at the top of the totem.pole were also drawing the largest renumeration packages and increasing the negative side of the ledger ....

They were liabilities - not assets....

So if NI gets stripped back and the focus returns to developing inspiring products,then that's a positive outcome...

NI are going through a pretty bleak winter,but I'm optimistic that there will be green shoots come the spring

[ATS]

I just heard Bad Bunny is going to buy NI so no worries

[Gamma-UT]

The debt burden is the real problem because there is still real value in the product line...

This is where administration/bankruptcy comes in. If no-one is willing to take that debt on, the banks wind up having to accept a haircut or they get nothing. It's the old J Paul Getty adage: “If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem..."

Even a fairly generous calculation of company value based on earnings points to the banks getting only half of that €300m debt repaid. And maybe not even upfront. They will no doubt complain and turn round a week later to lend FP another chunk of money for some other scheme.

That debt situation might result in liquidation followed by the parts being sold off. But even in that scenario, it's hard to believe someone won't pick up things like Kontakt simply because of the number of library suppliers who pay for Player encoding. Let's not forget how much of a basket case Cakewalk was at the end and it's still going (well, going-ish).