Reply To: Native Instruments Insolvency and Updates

[LinkedMusicians]

On Kirean said

So some worrying updates as of late is that you can’t download installers (including for older versions) anymore from Native Instruments via the account. Things seem to work through via Native Access now only.

Then on VI Control there was mention that iZotope had removed NI logo from RX12.

I truly am hopeful that my gut wrenching feeling about how things are gonna go turns out to be wrong.

Your post caused me to do something I haven’t done in a very long time, look at VI-Control, specifically at the thread on NI’s insolvency (I do look at their RSS feeds regularly, but don’t actually visit the site). It is packed full of misinformation on the NI insolvency — some of it liked by NI competitor, Mike Greene (a few months after his 40+ page attack on his competitor 8Dio using two contractors, one paid contractor for Greene himself making attacks on his and his friend Andrew Aversa’s competitor 8Dio based on false stories they manufactured who is now promoting Greene’s new NI/SoundPaint/Cinesamples competitor venture on KVR). Our membership actually includes at least one senior manager from NI. I would allow LM to be a source of misinformation about any company, plus, unlike VI-Control, LinkedMusicians isn’t owned by a Native Instruments competitor who can benefit from negative information about NI that can harm the brand and negatively impact the sale of the company and its assets.

If iZotope really removed the NI logo, it’s nothing I would be concerned about. NI and iZotope are extremely likely to be separate in the near future. If someone in the UI team accidentally released a version of the GUI with the NI logo removed, because they have a version of the GUI without the NI logo in anticipation of the two companies splitting up, that’s no reason to be concerned. It also doesn’t tell us anything at all. That is expected, just as it is expected that Brainworks and Plugin Alliance will  also very likely be separated from NI. So let’s address just some of the wild speculation and rumors that Greene is allowing to flourish at the NI-competitor owned VI-Control forum:

• A user claiming that you can’t download old installers that have long been replaced by Native Access. That’s within the realm of normal operations. Native Access continues to work flawlessly for me as of Wednesday morning. I haven’t found any widespread reports of issues with Native Access or authorizations. If there were problems with Native Access or authorizations, I would be concerned, but that isn’t being reported anywhere that I’ve seen, and my personal experience is that everything works flawlessly.
• The person that reported that the NI logo has been removed from the recently released iZotope RX 12. It is extremely likely that iZotope, Brainworks, and Plugin Alliance will be split up from NI. Yes, it’s possible that a company would buy all three, or that creditors could decide to keep the some parts of the company that couldn’t be sold for a desired price together, but it’s far more likely that NI and the companies it recently acquired will be split up. Consequently, it would be in no way surprising if iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworks soon begin to remove NI branding. I would find this to actually be a good sign that they are hopeful to find an owner. If they made no changes, I would be more concerned that they have no hope of being acquired (while it could mean that creditors decided to keep the entire organization together, I find that highly improbable).
• One of the speculative posts on VI-Control attempts to make something out of Francisco Partners no longer listing NI on their site. Even a first-year business student can tell you it is normal for a private equity company to remove a company that is in insolvency from its list. FP actually tried to sell NI to Bridgepoint and Bain Capital in late 2025, but the deal fell through. Francisco Partner’s site is basically a marketing tool to attract investment in FP. Francisco Partners removing Native Instruments from their website doesn’t mean NI is gone—it means Francisco Partners is gone. It’s a clear admission that they have lost their investment and no longer control the company. For users, this is actually a milestone: the ‘Private Equity era’ of NI is officially over, and the company is now fully in the hands of the court-appointed administrator and the creditors as they look for a new buyer. It would be far more surprising if they didn’t do that. The fact that the VIC poster is trying to read something more into it is, very candidly, only a reflection of their lack of understanding business fundamentals.

It’s very likely that NI will making an update announcement very soon. It may be that they are further along in negotiations with potential buyers or may be finalizing a deal; it could be that they’re closing down parts of the business or all of the business (highly doubtful); or it could be layoffs. But it’s very likely that we will hear an update very soon. From the public statements the solvency administrator and NI CEO have made, we know that they’re looking to sell the various parts of the company, not shut them down. Technically, it’s a bit of a gray area, but realistically, Francisco Partners really isn’t in the driver’s seat. While it’s not legally accurate to say, for all practical purposes, NI is now owned by creditors and they decide its future, and it seems clear that they want to split up and sell the company. I have seen nothing reported that makes me think there is any reason for panic. Everything to date has been very routine considering the circumstances.

As I’ve shared, the overwhelming majority of the sample libraries I own are Kontakt libraries. I use iZotope plugins extensively. I master everything I’ve ever shared in iZotope Ozone and use their software like Nectar, RX, etc. in most projects. So, basically, my following all of this is of great personal interest to me, but considering my background in marketing and business strategy (with the latter being more relevant in this situation), I thought it would be useful to NI customers, NI ecosystem developers, and NI employees if I shared my knowledge and experience.

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