inMusic Acquires Native Instruments: Around 100 Employees Reportedly Laid Off
The Entire Customer Support Team Was Reportedly Dissolved, According to Insider Reports
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inMusic Acquires Native Instruments: The End of the Insolvency Story · Source: GEARNEWS
inMusic, the new owner of Native Instruments, has reportedly laid off around 100 employees across nearly every department. According to Synthanatomy, the entire customer support team lost their jobs in the process. Neither inMusic nor Native Instruments has publicly commented on this so far, the information comes exclusively from insider reports by former employees. We’ll keep you posted.
Native Instruments and inMusic: Everything You Need to Know
Around 100 Layoffs at Native Instruments
The once-united Native Instruments alliance is now history. Every former brand has a new owner: iZotope now belongs to Boris FX, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx are back with Dirk Ulrich, and Native Instruments itself belongs to inMusic. According to Synthanatomy, extensive restructuring is currently underway at Native Instruments, and the news for staff is apparently just as bad as many feared.
A former employee, who wants to stay anonymous and is personally affected by the cuts, told Synthanatomy that around 100 people have been let go across nearly every department. Customer support reportedly got hit especially hard: according to the former employee, the entire support team was let go, a move that was apparently baked into the acquisition from the start, since inMusic centralizes support across its brands.
In the anonymous post, the former employee writes: “It has occurred across nearly all departments (around 100 individuals) and will keep happening. I found out the entire customer support team was terminated. This was set up by inMusic as part of their buy.” They go on to describe the internal situation as a mess and express little confidence in current leadership.
It Looks Like Development Is Affected Too
Electronic music producer “Unders” also reported mass layoffs at Native Instruments in a separate Reddit thread, affecting multiple staff in development, hardware, and support. Some employees were reportedly given “garden leave” through September, during which their roles, hardware development, for instance, could get folded into other brands within the inMusic group.
Neither inMusic nor Native Instruments has issued an official statement on the layoffs so far. These reports remain confirmed exclusively through insider sources from within the workforce, with no official numbers or context from the company itself yet.
This is a bitter development for the former Native Instruments team, especially after the inMusic acquisition back in May was initially celebrated as a positive sign for the brand’s future. We hope the affected colleagues find new opportunities quickly, whether in music tech or elsewhere. Even on LinkedIn, you’ll already find quite a few employees looking for their next role. We’re hoping inMusic can still turn this around in the end. We’ll keep you posted.
The End of the Insolvency Story?
[08 May 2026] It’s official: inMusic is acquiring Native Instruments. The US-based music technology group behind brands like Akai Professional, Moog Music, Denon DJ, Numark, Rane, and M-Audio has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Berlin-based company. With that, the long and for many users nerve-wracking insolvency process comes to a concrete end. And what an ending it is.
From Insolvency to Acquisition: The Context
Anyone who followed the Native Instruments insolvency story knows how drawn-out and exhausting this process has been. At the end of January 2026, Native Instruments filed for preliminary insolvency, triggered by debt accumulated under the previous investor structure led by Francisco Partners. In March, CEO Nick Williams confirmed that an active M&A process was underway with several interested parties from the audio and technology sectors. Now we know who won: inMusic Brands.
This is not a small deal. inMusic is one of the most experienced music technology companies in the world, founded in 1992, three decades in the business, with a portfolio spanning DJ gear, synthesizers, and studio technology. Akai Professional, Moog Music, Denon DJ, Numark, Rane, M-Audio, and Alesis are all part of the group. Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx now bring a complete software ecosystem with over 25 million registered users into the fold. That’s significant.
What the Acquisition Actually Means
The press release is clear on this point: business continues normally across all brands. Products, platforms, customer support, and downloads remain fully available. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, subject to the usual legal formalities.
Jack O’Donnell, CEO of inMusic, puts the promise directly: continued investment across all brands and product lines, with a long-term focus on innovation for creators at every level. “The tools you rely on today will keep working, and the tools you will rely on tomorrow are actively being built,” his statement reads.
Nick Williams, CEO of Native Instruments, sounds both relieved and confident: “With inMusic we have found a partner whose beliefs and ambitions align with ours, and whose understanding of what these brands mean to musicians and producers gives us real confidence in what comes next.”
The Connection Between inMusic and Native Instruments
This acquisition didn’t come out of nowhere. In 2025, inMusic and Native Instruments announced a collaboration that brought NKS integration to Akai Pro MPK controllers and M-Audio Oxygen controllers, while Native Instruments sounds arrived on the MPC standalone platform for the first time. That partnership was apparently the first step toward a closer relationship that is now formally sealed. Interesting!
What Does This Mean for Users of Kontakt, Traktor, iZotope, and Plugin Alliance?
In the short term: nothing dramatic. All products continue to run, all licenses remain valid, support stays active. Medium term, the potential of this combination is considerable. Deeper integration between Akai hardware and Native Instruments software, stronger NKS support across the entire inMusic portfolio, and potentially a clearer product strategy than was painfully absent under Francisco Partners, all of that is now on the table.
For iZotope and Plugin Alliance users who were particularly unsettled in recent months, the message is equally clear: both brands remain part of the package. inMusic has said it will share detailed integration plans as the process progresses.
Verdict
This is the news that many users, producers, and studio owners have been waiting for since January 2026. Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx are landing in the hands of a company that makes hardware and software out of genuine passion, not a financial investor optimizing returns. Whether inMusic makes the right calls for developing these platforms going forward remains to be seen, but the starting position is significantly better than it was just a few months ago. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one!
More Information
- Official statement from Nick Williams
- More on Native Instruments at Gearnews
- inMusic website
- Native Instruments at Thomann*
*Note: This article contains affiliate links that help us keep Gearnews running. The price for you always stays the same! If you buy something through these links, we receive a small commission. Thanks for your support!
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The big question. Did anyone ask it?
Will NI’s new owners rule out moving to a subscription model and abandoning lifetime purchase users..?
can in-music not just own the brands but create viable competition for pioneer ?
with all those companies i would hope some cross pollination innovation is on the horizon ?
Do they have to rename Native Instruments to Pan Continental Instruments? Keep off the acid, or you too will ask such stupid questions…..
My experience with inMusic is BFD. And it sucks. Their online validation every time you open the software was so workflow-busting, that I stopped using BFD.
Can you imagine every time you open an instance of Kontakt, it polls the internet for verification and you wait 30 or more seconds for it to do this?
Let’s hope not.
They fixed it a long time ago. It’s been seamless for months now
Inevitable, NI has been struggling financially since the early 2000s and in various ways been on life support ever since. If this is the way to finally make the NI brand a stable consistent entity again, longterm we’ll all benefit from this.