Every good merger, buyout, and takeover needs a publicity specialist behind it, and Gershon Kekst has been that go-to guy for almost four decades. He has recently sold his company to Paris-based Publicis Group to expand outside the US, but he sees the current merger environment as "frightening."

Gershon Kekst, who pioneered the field of public relations for dealmakers as an adviser to Henry Kravis and Sanford Weill, said the current credit-market contraction is the most "frightening" slump in four decades.

"This is more severe and more intense, and if I had to use one word to characterize it, in contrast to the 80's, it would probably be frightening," Kekst, 73, said in an interview. "We just don't know what's going to happen. The economy is being tested in a bear market that could go for a long time."

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