What reportedly happened
Industry reporting and company filings indicate that, following InMusic’s May 2026 acquisition of Native Instruments, the brand’s UK office has been shut down. Company filings in July show that Native Instruments’ CEO, Nick Williams, and chief product and technology officer Simon Cross have been removed from their roles. InMusic Europe’s CEO, Richard Seymour, appears to have taken their place in the corporate structure.
Who could be affected
Sources say the closure may lead to termination of a number of UK positions tied to product and engineering work on flagship Native Instruments products. Roles named as at risk include product manager, product designer, engineering manager, chief financial officer, VP global marketing, VP product design, senior product designer, and senior product engineer.
Many of the listed positions are reported to involve work on Maschine, Kontakt, and Komplete—products central to Native Instruments’ software and hardware ecosystem.
A Reddit thread that first drew wider attention to the situation read: “The layoffs continue: InMusic just fired the whole native instruments UK office…What everyone already thought about InMusic turns out to be correct once again.”
InMusic’s response and stated plans
InMusic Brands provided a statement to MusicTech that framed the changes as part of an integration process. The statement reads in part:
“As part of the ongoing integration of Native Instruments into the inMusic family of brands, we are simplifying our organisational and legal structure, including Native Instruments UK. This includes removing layers that were established to support a private equity ownership model, as well as streamlining other areas of the business to create a faster, more efficient organisation focused on innovation, customers, and long-term growth.”
The company added: “We recognise the impact these changes have on affected employees and are committed to supporting them throughout the transition.”
InMusic also affirmed the brand’s strategic importance and ongoing product work: “Native Instruments remains a strategically important part of inMusic, and our commitment to the brand is unchanged. Product development continues at a strong pace, with major new hardware and software initiatives already underway for 2027 and beyond.”
New roles and previous reductions
While reporting indicates a reduction of staff at the UK office, InMusic’s careers page has shown a number of new openings, primarily based in Rhode Island, USA, and Cambridge, UK. Positions listed include content development engineer, lead product manager, lead product designer, and other product-focused responsibilities.
This apparent consolidation follows earlier cuts: in July, reports said InMusic had already fired around 100 employees across Native Instruments departments. The scale of the most recent changes and how many staff have been affected were not specified in the filings reported to date.
Context: InMusic’s acquisition history
The developments echo decisions InMusic made after its 2023 acquisition of Moog Music. In that case, InMusic originally framed its purchase as offering support to address challenges for a small manufacturing business. Within months of the Moog acquisition, late September 2023 reports said roughly 30 staff at Moog’s Asheville, North Carolina headquarters were laid off and parts of manufacturing were relocated.
Moog has since released two major synthesizers, Muse and Messenger. InMusic’s wider portfolio already includes several prominent music brands—Akai, Alesis, Numark, Denon DJ, RANE, M-Audio and others—underscoring how its integration choices carry implications across a broad slice of the music-gear market.
Looking ahead
The company’s public messaging stresses continued investment in Native Instruments products. Upon acquiring Native Instruments, InMusic published a sit-down interview with its global CEO and founder, Jack O’Donnell; early in that interview he said: “The future for NI, I can assure you, is very exciting, very bright, and very secure.”
For now, the situation remains evolving. The filings, job postings and company statement sketch a reorganisation in progress, but details about exact headcount changes, severance and timelines for remaining product work have not been made public.
ElectroLouis will follow further developments and report confirmed updates about staff changes and product roadmaps as they become available.
ElectroLouis independently rewrote this report from the cited source material.
