Music hardware and software maker Native Instruments has entered preliminary bankruptcy proceedings, . It’s the company behind iconic software like Massive, Traktor, and Contact, and hardware like Machine+. Native Instruments also owns the iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance brands.
We don’t have many details about what this involves and what the future of the company will look like. We know that an administrator has been appointed to handle the restructuring and potentially sell off existing assets. Native Instruments employs hundreds of people and their fate also remains uncertain.
A private equity firm called Francisco Partners owns a majority stake in the company. Apart from this, it also has majority stake in institutions like GoodRX and Verifone. This is not the first time Native Instruments has been forced into a major restructuring. The company experienced considerable layoffs and uncertainty before being purchased by private equity.
Again, we have no idea how this will play out. It’s possible that new investors will join in and it will be back to business as usual. It’s also possible that everything will be broken into pieces and sold to the highest bidder.
We know that the Support Plugin Alliance appears to be unaffected. It issued a statement on Facebook saying it was not involved in the proceedings and operations would 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. Whatever hope I had went out the window.
If the company’s strong software line goes up for sale, Akai would probably be the best option. Its inclusion has started.
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