Big ownership changes in music tech rarely feel like MPE news at first glance, but the acquisition finalized this spring is worth a closer look for anyone building an expressive rig. On May 7, 2026, during Superbooth in Berlin, Native Instruments signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by inMusic Brands, the US-based owner of Akai Professional, Moog Music, Numark, Denon DJ, Rane, and M-Audio. The deal also brought iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx along for the ride, consolidating a striking amount of production software under one roof.
Why the Deal Happened
The acquisition wasn't a surprise to anyone tracking Native Instruments' finances. The company had been carrying roughly €250 million in debt against annual revenue closer to €25 million, and filed for preliminary insolvency proceedings in Germany earlier in the year before moving to formal insolvency by March 2026. For a company whose products — Kontakt, Komplete Kontrol, Maschine, Reaktor — sit at the center of countless MPE setups, that instability had real stakes for musicians who depend on continued updates and support.
The Groundwork Was Already There
This wasn't entirely out of nowhere. Native Instruments opened its proprietary NKS integration standard to third-party hardware manufacturers through the NKS Hardware Partner Program at NAMM 2025, with Akai and M-Audio signing on first. By late 2025, NKS integration was already shipping across Akai's MPK controller line and M-Audio's Oxygen series. In hindsight, that partnership reads like a preview of the ownership structure that followed.
What This Means for MPE Workflows
For musicians using Kontakt or Komplete Kontrol with MPE-capable instruments and controllers, the acquisition is broadly reassuring: it secures continued development of tools that many expressive performers rely on daily, rather than leaving them stranded mid-insolvency. inMusic has described itself as an audio-native, founder-controlled buyer rather than a financial one, which matters for a catalog that includes deeply engineering-heavy products like Reaktor and Massive.
The more interesting long-term question is what happens at the intersection of software and hardware. inMusic now owns both the software layer (Kontakt, Komplete Kontrol) and major hardware lines (Akai's MPK and MPC ranges, Moog's synthesizers) that have historically had limited or no native MPE support. Whether this ownership consolidation nudges Akai toward deeper per-note expression on future MPK or MPC hardware, or whether Moog explores MPE compatibility on future instruments, remains to be seen — but the incentive to align software and hardware roadmaps under one parent company is now much stronger than when these were separate, competing businesses.
A Pattern Worth Watching
This acquisition fits a broader consolidation trend across music tech in 2026, as standalone plugin and instrument developers increasingly get absorbed into larger hardware-and-software conglomerates. For the MPE community specifically, the practical takeaway is straightforward: Kontakt-based MPE instruments and Komplete Kontrol's expression mapping aren't going anywhere, and there's now a plausible path — even if unconfirmed — toward tighter integration between NI's software and Akai/Moog hardware down the line.
If you're currently building a rig around Kontakt instruments and an MPE controller, there's no immediate action needed. But it's worth keeping an eye on NAMM 2027 announcements, since consolidated ownership often shows up first as roadmap alignment rather than day-one feature changes. For now, the deal mostly answers the question that mattered most this year: whether Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol would still be actively developed a year from now. The answer, for the moment, is yes.