General Motors Co. plans to stop advertising on Facebook after the auto maker's executives determined their paid ads had little impact on consumers' car purchases, people familiar with the matter said.

The largest U.S. auto maker by sales will continue to expand its use of marketing through Facebook's pages, in which marketers can display content at no cost, these people said.

The news comes at a bad time for Facebook Inc. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based social network is expected to hold a historic initial public offering on Friday. Company executives have spent the last two weeks trying to convince investors that its advertising business makes it worthy of a $105 billion valuation.

via online.wsj.com

Talk of "Bad Timing"