This is the best explanation of a situation that isn’t exactly easy for a layperson to wrap their head around that I’ve read in a long time. Mad respect to you!

 

Preliminary Insolvency Proceedings Ordered for NATIVE INSTRUMENTS Holding GmbH

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 by Editor JM

In insolvency proceedings 3612 IN 603/26, the Charlottenburg Local Court has ordered protective measures against the assets of NATIVE INSTRUMENTS Holding GmbH, located at Schlesische Straße 29–30, 10997 Berlin. The company is registered in the Commercial Register of the Charlottenburg Local Court under number HRB 133331 and is represented by its Managing Director, Bernhard Schütze. The company's business purpose is the acquisition, holding, sale, and management of investments, as well as the holding and management of its own assets.

By order dated January 26, 2026, at 6:20 p.m., the insolvency court ordered preliminary insolvency proceedings to avert further economic harm. At the same time, enforcement measures against the debtor were prohibited, and any enforcement actions already initiated were temporarily suspended, insofar as they do not concern real estate. The aim of this decision is to safeguard the company's assets and to facilitate an orderly review of its financial situation.

Attorney Prof. Dr. Torsten Martini from Berlin was appointed as the provisional insolvency administrator. He is responsible for monitoring the company's financial situation, securing and preserving its existing assets, and determining whether these assets are sufficient to cover the costs of insolvency proceedings. Since the date of this appointment, any dispositions by the company of its assets are only valid with the provisional insolvency administrator's consent.

Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Martini is authorized to establish a special account for the future insolvency estate, to collect bank balances and other receivables, and to receive incoming funds. The banks holding the accounts have been obligated to provide him with comprehensive information. Debtors of the company may only make payments to the provisional insolvency administrator and no longer directly to NATIVE INSTRUMENTS Holding GmbH.

The provisional insolvency administrator is also entitled to enter the company's business premises and facilities, inspect books and business records, and request all information necessary to secure the future insolvency estate and to clarify the company's financial situation. With these measures, the insolvency court has established the legal framework to carefully and systematically examine the further development of the holding company.

Source: https://verbraucherschutzforum.berl...e-instruments-holding-gmbh-angeordnet-405770/

 

wtf is this statement...please, keep on buying our soon-to-be unsupported hardware and software, nothing to see here


NI CEO:

I want to personally take a moment to address the recent news about Native Instruments.

Please rest assured that business continues as usual at Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx. Our hardware and software products remain on sale and available for download and activation. Our passionate and dedicated teams are here and supporting customers as normal. In product and engineering, we are continuing to develop and launch new products and features. Our NKS Partnerships team continues to process Kontakt Player licences and NKS Partner submissions.

We are working diligently and responsibly to secure a healthy, financially sustainable future for Native Instruments. As you may have seen, Native Instruments GmbH has entered a restructuring process in Germany, as have 3 of our German non-operating holding companies. In legal terms, we have filed applications to open pre-insolvency proceedings for those companies.

We are focused on providing continuity for creators, customers, and partners. We’ll continue to share updates as we have them.

I’m a lifelong musician myself, and have been a passionate fan of Native Instruments for 25 years. Our mission to inspire and enable creators to express themselves through sound continues.


Source: https://blog.native-instruments.com/statement-from-nick-williams-ceo-of-native-instruments/

 

I dropped NI when they ended support for my Maschine MkII. No regrets!

 

PORTRAIT OF THE FOUNDER OF NI
For the release of the software REAKTOR, we profiled Native Instruments founder Stephan Schmitt and explored the company's beginnings. The film was then shown at the release event at Prince Charles in Berlin.

EB.TV presents: Stephan Schmitt On The Origins Of REAKTOR

EB.tv is proud to present a video from one of our music technology partners Native Instruments. Watch as the one of the original NI founders, Stephan Schmitt, walks you through the early days of his conception of creating a software instrument. Followed by the initial steps of the modular software instrument now known as Reaktor.

 

That announcement might sound calming, but he probably wrote it while hiding under his desk.

 

Last edited: Jan 29, 2026 at 3:08 PM

That's precisely his job as CEO: even when things are already dire, he's supposed to reassure customers and spread confidence.
Imagine if he writes the truth about how the company is really doing—what would happen then?

 

Since I'm from Germany, I'll post my contribution as well.

How long does corporate insolvency take in Germany?

Duration of insolvency proceedings in the case of corporate insolvency
The length of insolvency proceedings in the case of corporate insolvency varies and depends not least on the size of the company, the number of its creditors, and the amount of debt. As a rule, it takes about four years.

Restructuring or dissolution?
This important step concerns the future of the company: a decision must be made as to whether the company can still be saved. Can it be restructured or does it have to be dissolved?

Restructuring
If restructuring is planned, selling the company so that a new owner can set a new course may be a good solution. The alternative is a restructuring plan. This involves drawing up a customized catalog of measures to rescue the company.

Insolvency under self-administration
It is also possible for companies to file for insolvency under self-administration, for example, as part of a protective shield procedure. If the debtor can convince the court that this is sensible and that there are good chances of restructuring, the court will appoint an administrator. However, this administrator does not take over the management of the company, but merely controls and supervises the further processes. They provide support in planning liquidity and restructuring. In contrast, the management continues to have power of disposal and represents the company externally. This has the advantage that they can act independently, contribute their insider knowledge, and control the restructuring process. In addition, the familiar contact person remains in place for employees and business partners. This can also be beneficial for the company's image.

Dissolution
If it is decided that the company must be dissolved, all outstanding debts are collected and the company's assets are then sold. The proceeds go to the creditors.

I think we should wait and see and not panic right away. A lot can still happen, and NI is not just any company. And even if NI ends up being dissolved, the community will come out of the woodwork to continue developing the drivers for the hardware themselves.
As I said, let's wait and see.

 

I guess lying to their customer base is an inherent and vitally important function of the CEO in order to satisfy the principles of any corporation's financial interest and is his/her fiduciary responsibility.

 

I'm sure the myopic mentality of an equity firm didn't help matters, but NI's financial problems go back much further than that. They've been far too aggressive in their acquisitions, and that's been the main source of their debt. There's no evidence that their sales have tanked or that confidence in their products has diminished.

 

Let's hope they'd be wise enough not to do that. I'm a veteran Mac user but killing off the entire PC market for NI products in the hopes of pushing Mac sales would be catastrophically stupid.

 

The main issue for people to worry about is not their hardware, and new drivers are a very tiny portion of what they actually produce. When someone buys a Kontakt library, even if it is from an "independent developer"; they are paying NI to use their platform for product development tools they can get from nowhere else. NI handles all of the DRM, and with that; they control the authentication servers for all of those Kontakt libraries. If they are taken offline, developers and customers are screwed. Developers more instantly, and customers the first time they need to reinstall and reactivate a product for any reason.

When the developers realize the amount of risk they are taking by being dependent on NI, lose confidence they will no longer have real tech support, updates to development tools they need; the entire house of cards begins to wobble even more.

I can't say on Windows, but the one device I have from them works on Mac with no additional software at all, albeit with limited integration. You are probably right that there will be ways to keep hardware working either way. But if you are a legit user and buyer of Kontakt libraries for many years; if they are dissolved and the authentication servers disappear from the internet, what happens to all of the DAW projects you never rendered all of those Kontakt instances to audio stems? By the time we "find out" that news, it frequently comes too late to do anything about it.

There is a lot of info written in-between the lines in that post from the CEO to unpack.

 

I'm reminiscing.

 

There's even more to it:

NI have been releasing their own libraries/sound packs. As far as I understand, many (if not most) of them are commissioned at 3rd party developers/producers who are skilled in given styles. If I were such a developer, I would be very hesitant to accept any assignments from NI now, fearing not to see any money from an insolvent company.

 

@Neurolepticer : "community" NEVER made drivers for any of their abandoned hardware ...

 

Sure they have, and they exist. They're just not designed to be replacements to NI's drivers.

I've done some personal experiments to turn the touchstrip on a Mikro into a suitable control for Korg's MiniKorg plugin (with two lights even, something that the official driver/software doesn't do).

 

I'd never heard that before, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see, even if they have their own in-house sound designers. That was similar in the Golden Age of "permatemps"; cheaper labor and not increasing headcount on anyone's spreadsheet.

Your comment about not accepting new assignments is probably dead-on already. That kind of lack of confidence is sometimes the perfect accelerator of structural collapse, since it is a giant red flag about continued dependence on their ecosystem. That is a fragile situation at best. So while the CEO says everyone should just keep working as if nothing has changed, the reality is that sketched out developers with updates and other new content products already in the works, at various stages of completion, might really hit the brakes before a crash. It's kind of like hoping the car doesn't still have legacy Tanaka airbags in it; the recalled ones that can explode and shoot metal shrapnel in your face.

I think (and hope for other people) that someone comes along and buys the entire thing; but because of all the issues involved, they might get some seriously lowball offers. That "Open Letter" from the CEO could just be the result of delusional optimism, but the third-party devs will probably have a hard time believing it.