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(NOT A DEAL) Native Instruments announced the sale of the company to a technology investor


Leok85

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Technology investor Francisco Partners has acquired majority ownership of Native Instruments with plans to create an “end-to-end user centric platform for the music creation industry”.  The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021

https://www.gearnews.com/native-instruments-acquired-by-technology-investor-plans-end-to-end-music-creation-platform/

 

hope they won't decide to push a subscription model for Komplete 

Edited by Leok85
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I've got my popcorn ready for this. What I am starting to expect will happen won't be unlike what happened with Magix when they bought Sony Creative Suite; we'll see a yearly update of Komplete with not much added. Possibly a subscription but there is so much competition out there and so many people who already own some version of Komplete now that it may not be worth the investment. This is especially true since many already have Kontakt which is what they will likely be banking on making their money back with. They will likely continue to push out shovelware libraries to throw into Komplete to keep giving people reasons to upgrade every year.

I see development on Kontakt coming to a screeching halt. If NI themselves couldn't fix the disaster it's become, I can't see some new company coming in and doing it for them. Especially since it's an investment firm. Looking through their list of companies they've invested in, I can't see a single one that has actually benefitted from being bought out by them. Most have been cash grabs because they had large communities and customer bases already and they looked to capitalise on that before dropping the further development.

Looks like it's time for a new company to become the industry standard.

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NI is a global company as is Francisco Partners as such I don't expect company or product names** to change unless assets aren't transferred in the deal as was in the case of Cakewalk with transition from Gibson to Bandlab - but time will tell.
**unless FP's corporate ego demands a rebranding.  Still when EMH Partners took over a majority share of NI I don't recall major changes but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Edit:
from https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/music-technology-company-native-instruments-acquired-by-investment-firm-francisco-partners/ 
"In 2017, EMH invested €50 million in Native Instruments, followed by a further investment in 2020 to achieve majority ownership in the company" 

 From same article
"Investment firm EMH Partners has sold its majority stake in Berlin-based music technology company Native Instruments to tech-focused investment firm, Francisco Partners."
Doubt if NI had any say in this.  Maybe this is another fallout of Covid economics, maybe EMH needed more capital...

Edited by TheSteven
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2 hours ago, Batwaffel said:

I've got my popcorn ready for this.

yeah...
It's almost never a good sign when a company is taken over by another whose focus and/or background is different.
Especially when an artistically focused company is taken over by an investment firm (i.e. main interest is what $$ they can wring out of it).

Quote

 

“WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING TOGETHER WITH THE MANAGEMENT TEAM AND THE EXISTING SHAREHOLDER GROUP, UTILISING OUR BROAD OPERATIONAL AND STRATEGIC EXPERIENCE AND M&A CAPABILITIES TO HELP THE COMPANY ACCELERATE ITS GROWTH TRAJECTORY.”

MATT SPETZLER, FRANCISCO PARTNERS

 

We all know that the best way to design cutting edge products is to design by committee.

Edited by TheSteven
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6 hours ago, TheSteven said:

Maybe it was a mistake not to upgrade to Komplete 13 Ultimate Collector's Edition during the sales this year...
or maybe next year it'll be $99.99

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. My crystal ball ain't working either, but if there's a deal on Complete 13 this Summer - I'm in.

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35 minutes ago, paulo said:

Meetings.........where good ideas go to die.

Usually a very slow death. The idea is almost deceased but then a new manager comes in and resurrects it almost like Nazareth but unlike Nazareth the idea has a terminal illness and slowly dies until another manager come in :(   Rinse, Repeat.....

 

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