pan out

The obstacles aren’t just about setting up a business—where officials have recently tried to smooth the path—but also about closing one down if it doesn’t pan out.

If Dell borrows too much money to buy a company and the deal doesn’t pan out, the stock would get hit hard.

He hoped to find a role with a major defense manufacturer, but interviews with seven companies over months didn’t pan out.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of College Futures Foundation, which commissioned the study, said that its aim is to help community colleges “better understand how the promise of economic mobility ... is panning out or not.”

However it pans out, Mitchell has options at his disposal.