Music hardware and software manufacturer Native Instruments has started provisional insolvency proceedings, . This is the company behind iconic software such as Massive, Traktor and Kontakt and hardware such as Maschine+. Native Instruments also owns the iZotope, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance brands.
We don’t have many details about what this entails and what the future of the company will look like. We do know that an administrator has been appointed to handle the restructuring and possibly sell existing assets. Hundreds of people work at Native Instruments and their fate also remains uncertain.
A private equity firm called Francisco Partners owns a majority stake in the company. It also owns majority stakes in GoodRX and Verifone, among others. This isn’t the first time Native Instruments has been forced into a major restructuring. The company experienced many layoffs and uncertainty before it was bought by private equity.
Again, we have no idea how this will work out. It’s possible that new investors will jump on board and things will return to normal. It is also possible that everything will be scrapped for parts and sold to the highest bidder.
We do know that subsidiary Plugin Alliance appears to be unaffected. The company issued a statement on Facebook saying it is not involved in the proceedings and that operations will continue as normal. This means that new plugins will be released along with updates to the current software.
Everything else is still up in the air. This is troubling for those who have invested heavily in the company’s ecosystem of products. I am one of them. Any hope I had for success went out the window.
If the company’s robust software line is offered for sale, Akai is probably the best choice. Recording has already started.
