Wells Fargo & Co. plans to stop offering deposit insurance on checking account balances above the standard federal limit of $250,000. San Francisco-based Wells will halt the extra insurance on Jan. 1, the company said. Up to the limit of $250,000, checking and savings accounts remain insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The added insurance was offered under the Transaction Account Guarantee Program, which was created by the United States in October 2008 to shore up confidence in the banking system. Fees for participation are scheduled to increase next year.

Retail

Pet Food Express and Home Concepts Furniture are expanding in the East Bay with new retail outlets. Pet Food Express is opening a store in downtown Walnut Creek at the shuttered Elephant Pharm site. The new store will be located at 1388 S. California St. next to Trader Joe's. Home Concepts Furniture has leased 22,000 square feet in Pleasant Hill, brokers from Colliers International said. Home Concepts will move into DVC Plaza, which is near the corner of Contra Costa Boulevard and Golf Club road and is anchored by Safeway and K-Mart, Colliers said.

Foreclosures

A downtown Oakland parking lot that once was expected to be transformed into a 22-story residential high rise has been seized by its lender through a foreclosure. Developer PPD Merritt I LLC never

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built the project, whose default was triggered by the collapse of Lehman Bros. The foreclosure valued the site at $3.6 million — far below the $18.9 million loan amount.

High tech

Pleasanton-based Polycom Inc. expects to capture more opportunities in the videoconferencing market following word that Logitech International, whose U.S. headquarters are in Fremont, will buy LifeSize Communications. The proposed purchase of LifeSize by Logitech offers "further evidence that visual communications is on the cusp of going mainstream," said Robert Hagerty, Polycom's CEO. Logitech this week disclosed it's buying Texas-based LifeSize for $405 million. Previously, San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. announced a plan to buy Norway-based Tandberg, a videoconferencing firm.

Internet

San Francisco-based Twitter Inc.'s number of users in the United States fell 7.9 percent in October from the previous month, according to market researcher San Mateo-based ComScore. Twitter's users fell to 19.2 million.

Compiled from staff and wire reports. Got Bay Area business news? Reach Drew Voros at 925-943-8099 or dvoros@bayareanewsgroup.com.