Native Instruments enters into insolvency proceedings, leaving its future uncertain

"Music hardware and software manufacturer Native Instruments has entered into preliminary insolvency proceedings, according to a report by Create Digital Music. This is the company behind iconic software like Massive, Traktor and Kontakt and hardware like Maschine+. Native Instruments also owns the brands iZotope, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance. We don't have many specifics as to what this entails and what the future of the company will look like."

"A private equity firm called Francisco Partners owns a majority stake in the company. It also owns majority stakes in entities like GoodRX and Verifone, among others. This isn't the first time Native Instruments has been forced into major restructuring. The company experienced plenty of layoffs and uncertainty between 2019 and 2020 before being purchased by private equity."

"We do know that subsidiary Plugin Alliance seems to be unaffected. It issued a statement on Facebook saying that it isn't involved with the proceedings and that operations will continue as normal. This means new plugins will be released, along with updates for current software. Everything else is still up in the air. This is troubling for those who have heavily invested in the company's ecosystem of products."

Native Instruments has entered preliminary insolvency proceedings and an administrator has been appointed to manage restructuring or potentially sell assets. The company develops hardware and software including Massive, Traktor, Kontakt, and Maschine+, and owns iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance. Francisco Partners holds a majority stake. Hundreds of employees face uncertain futures. The company previously underwent layoffs and uncertainty between 2019 and 2020 before the private equity purchase. Possible outcomes include new investors restoring operations or asset sales to the highest bidder. Plugin Alliance reports it is unaffected and will continue releasing plugins and software updates. Many users face disrupted product roadmaps and lost hardware refresh hopes.

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