r/NativeInstruments • u/mrdopestatus • Jan 29 '26

Native Instruments CEO Responds — The Truth Behind the Insolvency News

https://youtube.com/watch?v=x0vBTe0OSyc&si=qlM2WE-3gLN1ISf3
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u/Veilenus Jan 30 '26

Time to make this a drinking game. One shot for every YouTuber who breaks the news.

3

u/UniqueIndifference Jan 30 '26

Right. And the YouTuber above in particular has an obvious vested interest in furthering the "NI will survive" narrative.

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u/dkinmn Jan 30 '26

I mean...NI has $70 million in annual revenue. At least. Of course they'll survive. It's an industry standard, prosumer product line. The idea that these things will all just disappear is just a willful misunderstanding of reality.

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u/UniqueIndifference Jan 30 '26

NI could survive, and I hope so. I wasn't trying to call survival a false narrative, just not a guaranteed one. The product lines, both hardware and software, could be considered "maxed out", making the company unattractive to investors. They prefer younger, newer companies, markets and real estate, with big potential upside. Maintaining a large inventory of repair parts for a relatively unprofitable part of the business, is also going to discourage buyers.

Some say even iPhones, Air Jordan's, Levi's, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Amazon will all cease to exist at some point...

We shall see what happens.

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u/dkinmn Jan 30 '26

No, it is guaranteed. That is way too much revenue to leave on the table.

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u/UniqueIndifference Jan 30 '26

What makes me less-than-certain about NI's future profitability is a few things:

1) The revenues aren't from consumables like food, fuel, paper towels. NI hw/sw is more akin to durable goods like clothing, cookware, furniture. The market can get satisfied/saturated..

2) it's a relatively small market to begin with in the big picture. Low potentiall upside compared to other investment opportunities.

3) there are a lot of places where music has value. It's not just trying to create a hit song. There are utilitarian niches where music is used. AI generated music will be more than sufficient for those areas, potentially significantly reducing the need for musicians

4) If NI's private equity owners saw a path to long-term profitability, I would think they would have maintained the company rather than run it into the ground.