This according to Create Digital Music: https://cdm.link/ni-insolvency/

I'm not up to speed with German law so I can't say what kind of proceedings in what timeline this implies, but probably nothing good.

Me as a NI user: well fuck, better make backups and get k'd alternatives just in case... maybe someone will scoop them up and make something out of it, but who knows what will happen to iZotope and others.

 

Insolvency is when a company becomes insolvent. Then insolvency proceedings are opened and an insolvency administrator is appointed. Where can money still be recovered? Can the company be restructured? Are there any layoffs, and so on? This usually takes several months until a decision is made about whether the company will be sold or not.

 

Dirk Ulrich has left Native Instruments – is NI slowly a sinking ship or ready for a brighter future - March 1, 2024

It has been apparent for several years now that Native Instruments is a slowly sinking ship in the music tech business. As exclusive deals used to be, they now flood the market with them. You can buy NI plugins everywhere. At Plugin Boutique, Thomann, etc. It’s good that they’re opening up, but the constant deals show that golden times are over.

I think Dirk Ulrich also recognized it, which could be one reason why he withdrew from the business. I can imagine that working with investors is never easy because, at some point, they want to see their invested money back. And that’s currently difficult with Native Instruments.

No groundbreaking products, developments of popular plugins are discontinued, devaluation of their own plugin portfolio through massive, endless sales, etc. Anything that damages the reputation. Plus, customers have more and more alternatives.

We’ll see where Native Instruments goes in 2024. Maybe 2024 will be the golden year. One would like to wish it on them because their products have shaped the music production market. It will remain a shaky affair, but I hope that will get more positive news this year from NI than the previous years. I wish Dirk Ulrich all the best for the future.

https://synthanatomy.com/2024/03/dirk-ulrich-has-left-native-instruments.html

Spoiler: Dirk Ulrich Statement

Dirk Ulrich Statement
It is with a heavy heart that I share these news with you all: Last night I have informed the majority shareholders and the other board members of the NI group that I am stepping down from my Advisory Board role, effective immediately. The NI group includes Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx.

This ultimately means that I will have no more active role in this company group whatsoever. Which is definitely not what I expected or wanted to happen for the business or for myself when I sold PA/BX and joined “Soundwide”, now NI.

I’ve re-invested a really substantial sum into the new NI when I sold PA/BX and tried hard for 2 years to serve the group in a rather passive advisory job that I was asked to morph into instead of actually helping to actively steer the new, bigger ship. It turns out though that I am simply not made for passively “advising” other people to run my business, in ways that I may or may not always fully agree with.

I feel very sorry for potentially disappointing many of our employees that I have had many fantastic years with, the partner companies I personally signed over a period of almost 15 years, the Millions of users and fans out there who love and follow what we have created, and last not least my family members and close friends who have helped me to build something amazing between 2006 and 2021! You know who you are and you know how good you are! Please know that you all will always have a special place in my heart for sure!

“NI ft. IZO & PA & BX” as a combined force has a ton of amazing product and IP to offer, created by hundreds of very skilled people in offices and home offices around the globe. Unleash the beast..!

I will continue to cheer for a future NI from the “outside”, which is definitely something I will have to get used to, especially considering that despite my departure from any and all active roles in the company I am still the largest private shareholder of this group.

Music and Technology and Marketing, these are my passions and make my (business) life. It’s what I know and dream about.

This def feels like an emotional rollercoaster for me, but I am a positive person with a positive mindset, blessed with a loving and supportive family.

And there is a German saying that goes something like this and that I have followed for decades, through the good and the bad times:

“In the end all will be great. And if it’s not really great yet… then it’s probably just not the end yet.

UPDATE: Plugin Alliance/NI Statement
Dear Plugin Alliance and Native Instruments Family,
As you may have read, Dirk Ulrich, the founder of Plugin Alliance and a visionary in our field, has left the Native Instruments Advisory Board. Dirk’s contributions have left a lasting mark on the music production industry and our company.

What does this mean for you? In a word: nothing. We remain laser-focussed on developing new products that will help you get to your creative goals faster and easier. So far this year, we’ve already launched the bx_enhancer, Three-Body Technology Cenozoix Compressor and ADPTR AUDIO HYPE and we have a full roadmap ahead.

The partnership between Plugin Alliance, iZotope, and Native Instruments is growing steadily stronger. And throughout this year, you’ll see more examples of how we’re able to bring you an even more expansive and integrated suite of music creation tools.
What’s Next?

We look to this community as a source of inspiration for what to build – and we’re working on an ambitious roadmap including several products directly inspired by your feedback. Building new tools to help you tighten up your mixes or help you sound unique is why everyone at Brainworx, Plugin Alliance, iZotope and Native Instruments comes to work every day – and that mission drives everything we do.

Still, we understand that change brings questions. We’re here to answer them. Feel free to reach out to us with any thoughts, questions, or feedback and we’ll do our best to respond.

https://synthanatomy.com/2024/03/dirk-ulrich-has-left-native-instruments.html

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2026 at 3:04 PM

Three years to the week after they were bought by Francisco Partners equity firm.
Classic move of buy the healthiest company in music, load it up with debt and then abandon the corpse.

Their mission statement was 'This move aimed to accelerate Native Instruments' transition into an end-to-end, subscription-based ecosystem for music production and DJing software and hardware."

What could go wrong..... devastating for the music making public.
Hope the payout was worth it.

 

I've invested in Komplete Kontrol S61 MK2 and Maschine MK3. Do I sell now, and jump ship? Wait the storm out? Panic mode, LOL.

 

my 10 cents: who gives a fuck? we have thousands of working kontakt instruments - I don´t need a new one every day + a kontakt upgrade every 14 days. so RIP NI!

 

Back up your personal data from the website, get the latest updates and software for your products.
Nobody knows what's going to happen next.

 

Bugger not good - I have heavily invested into the NI franchise with Keyboards and software and sample solutions. So one should not expect too many updates in the near future at least.

Overall this is the result of all investment companies believing in bigger is better. The market grew during covid, everyone believed in this trend to continue. But then why should it? Of course, new potential clients come up every day, but overall this market so oversaturated with the same solutions, the same sample library, the same effect plugin etc.

 

The competition has mostly delivered better and cheaper products. Just look at Behringer, made in China! I'm surprised Yamaha, Roland, Korg, or Fender haven't bought Native Instruments. They're Americans, after all, and they think in terms of quarterly figures, profit maximization, and profit margins. The Chinese or Japanese think long-term and are crushing them all.

 

Coming up, just around the bend.... Fender Kontakt Pro!

Actually, insolvency takes some time and there's no telling where it lands. They could get sold off to another company that steers the ship to health, or they could get picked up by some entity that sells them off piece by piece until they're gone.

This news is a product of a company that had been losing their vision for quite some time, combined with AI music that can get you a sound you're looking for via a text prompt, rather than having you purchase a sample pack of that sound. Another victim of garbage, slop AI. And if we're to be honest, it probably doesn't help that you can find their packs on warez sites before they've even fully been released.

Had been thinking about a Kontrol S88 MK3 or an Arturia Keylab 88 MK3. My decades old midi controller finally died recently. Guess I know which one to go with now.

 

they will be sold off - and maybe parted out. But those situations do not tend to end up in creative explosion afterwards. And obviously in the meantime - making matters worse - costumers will move away.

 

This is exactly why I setup a NAS ( I used to think it was overkill). I keep backups of everything I use. For those with old computers that still work, consider reviving it with OpenMediaVault and get your stuff sorted. You never know when these software companies will kill their ONLINE installers/activation tools. Shit happens (quickly), but at this point NI could dissapear tomorrow, and I'll be able to use what I have and reinstall it without their help. Aim for that level of security, because (while I don't blame the devs) some executives suck and customers suffer via blind trust.

 

I just wish a billionare (who loves making music) would just buy NI + Ableton + Bitwig and open source everything. The world would be a better place...but I guess that better place is elsewhere.

 

Another issue. I am obsviously not sure, if this is the case here, bu basically, some hedge funds buy companies using a lot of borrowed money.
They don’t really pay the full price themselves. They take out loans for that — and then put that debt onto the company they just bought.

So after the deal, the company is stuck paying off the debt that was used to buy it.

And that has to be covered by whatever the company makes - or in this case does not make.

But - to be frank: In Germany the type of insolvency NI has initiated basically results in employees - at least German ones - being covered to some extend for 3 or 6 months, with the idea of finding a long term solution for the company. Which they obviously will find for NI - another investment firm most likely. And the game begins from the start.

 

Guess Dirk's severance pay dragged the balance sheet deep into the red!

 

Sucks for the industry, sucks for us. I really like NI stuff.

Sucks for hardware users especially. If nobody takes the company over, they might be left without future support of any kind.

At least I can be sure that all the stuff that's already on my hard drives and works offline isn't going anywhere.

 

If there isn't enough demand for your company's product and you can't reduce your operating costs, you'll go bankrupt.

If market and operational analyses show that NI won't be able to mass-produce new products that people would buy in the future, you won't be able to get capital from banks, hedge fund managers, or venture capital firms. Of course, you could spin off your successful MIDI keyboard business into a separate company. However, I don't know if these MIDI keyboards generate profits.

Keep in mind that a company consists of several people, such as accounting, marketing, software specialists, production, cleaning staff, etc. Rent, servers, shipping, etc.—you can't reduce these monthly costs. If you don't sell enough units of your product, you'll go bankrupt, meaning you'll become insolvent.

 

I can't comment on the biz side of things, not being privy to NI's financials and forecasts, but whatever happens to NI's assets and IP it's very bad for the products, even if they get bought out by a big name who might care about them.

Kontakt might survive, because there's a lot of value in the libraries and it has been slowly updated to keep up with the times.. But Reaktor will probably not survive. The codebase is old and the know-how to improve and operate has greatly diminished. And a lot of people will go (or be let go) because of this insolvency greatly reducing (if not eliminating altogether) the skill to keep it afloat.

And if Reaktor goes then rest of their synth lineup will be dead too, it being the other big platform of NI.

 

*sigh*

Somebody in the CDM article comments suspects this of being fake AI generated news, but it's real, https://neu.insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de/ap/text.xhtml?x=0.5266039465243685 for those who like German legalese.