Native Instruments acquired by InMusic, home to Akai Pro, Moog, Denon DJNative Instruments has been acquired by music tech conglomerate InMusic for an undisclosed amount. The merger comes almost five months after Native Instruments announced it was filing for insolvency. Since 2021, NI has been majority owned by private equity firm Francisco Partners.
In a press release, the brands state that “Native Instruments and InMusic unite,” building on a “strong and established relationship between the two companies.” Both companies have a number of subsidiaries that compete with one another: NI is also the parent company to iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx. InMusic, meanwhile, is home to Moog, Akai Pro, Numark, Denon DJ, Stanton, Alesis, M-Audio, Rane, and more.
In 2025, InMusic and NI collaborated on bringing NKS integration to a selection of gear by Akai Pro and M-Audio, which also introduced banks of NI sounds to the MPC platform.
For Native Instruments users, the two brands promise “business continues normally,” with products, services, platforms and customer support remaining available across all brands and territories. This echoes a previous promise from Nick Williams, Native Instruments’ CEO, in March 2026. For now, InMusic and NI state that they’re working towards completing the transaction “in the coming weeks.”
Speaking on the acquisition, InMusic founder and CEO Jack O’Donnell says that “Native Instruments represents everything we look for in a partner: exceptional products, a deeply engaged community, and a clear point of view on what musicians want…Bringing these platforms together allows us to move faster, deepen integration, and build better tools for creators.”
O’Donnell also promises “a long-term focus on innovation that serves creators…The tools you rely on today will keep working, and the tools you will rely on tomorrow are actively being built.”
Williams also shares enthusiasm in the buyout: “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.”
What does this mean for Native Instruments’ future?
This is major news for NI customers, but news that many predicted. Upon the announcement of NI’s insolvency, Reddit users foresaw an InMusic buyout, pointing to the group’s portfolio of historic music tech brands.
Many of Native Instruments products actively compete with those of the InMusic stable: its DJ brand Traktor is a direct competitor to Denon DJ, Numark, Rane and Stanton; Maschine is a fierce rival to Akai’s MPC range; Komplete Kontrol is a leading MIDI controller system that competes with M-Audio and Alesis.
Will InMusic eliminate its competition? In 2023, O’Donnell attempted to block AlphaTheta’s $100m acquisition of Serato DJ, saying, “In any market when you eliminate competition, it has an effect on consumers. It’s going to raise prices, eliminate innovation and limit choice.” It’s unlikely, then, that O’Donnell would seek to close any NI brands, and InMusic’s history with Moog and Rane has shown that it largely lets its acquired brands operate independently. This is, however, the first time it’s acquired a brand with such crossover amongst its own portfolio.
InMusic now also takes on the Kontakt ecosystem, which many independent software instrument creators rely on. If InMusic places any strain on this brand, it could see a significant backlash from the music production community and a potential loss in revenue.
In any case, the acquisition concludes a turbulent moment in Native Instruments’ 30-year history and brings an end to its private equity ownership.
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