Published
Wed, Sep 4, 2019, 14:55
- Around 100 people lost their jobs at the tech company last week, with about 50 others laid off over the summer.
Native Instruments has reportedly laid off 25 percent of its staff to focus on its new "platform strategy."
The tech company, which is headquartered in Berlin, sent a statement to Create Digital Music confirming that around 100 employees from its sales, marketing, administration and engineering departments had been let go. (CDM reports that about 50 employees were laid off before then, in July and August.) The decision comes ahead of the launch of a "new, unified and fully integrated platform," which will be available in 2020. Contrary to speculation, the company claims the move was not financially motivated.
"We've been driving innovation in music creation since the 1990s," CEO and cofounder Daniel Haver said. "First through software instruments, then by expanding to an integrated ecosystem with complementing hardware, and now by creating a unified platform experience for the modern music producer. To make this transformation successful, we needed to adapt our strategy, including a centralized functional setup that can support our vision of 'One Native.' Unfortunately, this also means we had to make some tough decisions and part ways with a number of employees. This has been the hardest part of this transformation."
In another statement to CDM, Native Instruments elaborated on the new platform strategy: "The reason why we are focusing on a platform strategy is actually to improve the experience for all users of our products... Rather than releasing more and more products, we want to ensure that users are getting the most out of our current products through a connected and unified experience."
Earlier this summer, Native Instruments, the company responsible for popular products such as Traktor and Maschine, released the long-awaited Massive X synth.
Correction: An employee of Native Instruments contacted Resident Advisor to correct the percentage of staff members recently laid off. They said Native Instruments employed 600 people, not 500, changing the percentage of staff let go 25 percent, down from the previously written 30 percent.